Title: The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend
Author: Katarina Bivald
Genre: romance, literary fiction, women's fiction
The Readers of Broken Wheel is a delight! Amy Harris and Sara Linqvist are pen pals/book pals; after Sara is laid off from her bookstore job in Sweden Amy invites her for an extended visit to Iowa. Amy had painted a Norman Rockwell-esque portrait of Broken Wheel, Iowa to Sara: eccentric characters, town gossip, tragedy, etc. When Sara arrives she finds out that Amy has died and that the town is on the verge of dying too. Amy Harris was a respected citizen of Broken Wheel so the townspeople decide to take care of Sara and they let her stay in Amy's house free of charge. In fact, they let her do everything free of charge: meals at the diner, groceries, etc. Sara decides to repay their kindness with a bookshop. She stocks the bookshop with Amy's books and vows to find a book for everyone in the town. Broken Wheel is not a literary town (there is no library!) so Sara is looked upon as a strange European. People come into the bookshop to check out the "tourist" and eventually their lives change in small but significant ways. The town also changes Sara. Sara was used to living life vicariously through books. Ironically, she begins to live in a tiny town in Iowa!
** This book was received as an Advanced Reader Copy digital e-galley from Netgalley.com**
