The Storied Life Of Aj Fikry

The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry is a 2013 novel by Gabrielle Zevin (Elsewhere, Young Jane Young, Out of the Easy, Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow) that centers on the titular character, owner of a bookshop on Alice Island, a fictional island off the coast of Massachusetts. A.J. Fikry’s stubborn and bitter personality is on full display at the start of the story when he learns that his favorite publisher’s agent has died—and been replaced by a clumsy blonde named Amelia Loman. He is immediately disgusted by her taste in books and behaves so brutishly toward her that Amelia storms out of the shop.

At home alone, A.J. gets drunk and misses his dead wife. Grieving and reading are the only events to punctuate his otherwise monotonous existence. Though he regrets his poor treatment of Amelia, he feels worse for himself. A.J.’s self-pity only worsens when he realizes that someone stole his rare copy of Edgar Allen Poe’s Tamerlane during one of his drunken stupors. Shortly thereafter, A.J.’s story takes a surprising turn when a two-year old girl named Maya is abandoned in his bookstore.