DEBUT London-based widower Mukesh grieves the loss of his wife Naina and passes his days in routine loneliness. Seventeen-year-old Aleisha is working in her local library for the summer, escaping the troubles at home and tamping down university anxiety. When Mukash visits the library to return a book for his late wife and hoping to use reading to connect with his young and alienated granddaughter Priya, Aleisha gives him a list of novels she discovered in a returned copy of
To Kill a Mockingbird. As Aleisha, Mukash, and then Priya read through the list together, their lives open in surprising directions, demonstrating once again the enriching qualities of the novel.
VERDICT This thoughtful and heartwarming debut joyfully joins Gabrielle Zevin’s The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry, Antoine Laurain’s The Red Notebook, and Nina George’s The Little Paris Bookshop as yet another homage to the power of books and reading. An absolute delight to read, it will be catnip to book groups craving a story to remind them why we read and how very important libraries and book shops are.
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