The storied life of A. J. Fikry

There seems to be a new genre emerging of books centering on curmudgeonly widowers.  Like Ove in A man called Ove, A. J. Fikry has recently lost a beloved wife who was the socially extroverted half of the couple.  With her he ran a bookstore called Island Books on Alice Island, Massachusetts.  A year and a half after her death, descending into mild alcoholism, misanthropy, and self-pity, the forty-ish bookseller suddenly finds himself landed with a two-year-old girl who has been abandoned in his shop.  This improbable plot, which also concerns the theft of Fikry’s valuable edition of one of E. A. Poe’s lesser known works, spins a cast of memorable characters into a charming tale.  Lovers of books and bookstores will be particularly taken with A. J.’s story.  260 pp.