The Door-to-Door Bookstore

Henn makes his U.S. debut with this languidly paced and heartwarming charmer. Carl Christian Kollhoff has spent his long career working in a bookstore, hand-delivering personalized picks to customers. As he walks through his small town, some of whose medieval streets are still unpaved, every reader he visits has reasons to worry about the world. One remains housebound, another endures domestic abuse. Their fortunes take a worse turn when the daughter of the bookstore’s owner takes over the shop and hangs Carl out to dry, both because she feels that hand delivery is antiquated and because she’s jealous of Carl’s close relationship with her father. During one of his dwindling deliveries, Carl finds a new friend, a nine-year-old girl who is a bright ray of disruption in his otherwise orderly life. She has spied him on his route and wants to join in. It might seem a small thing to deliver a book, but in the tradition of the most epic of tales, the Carl and the girl change the fates of many, including their own.