This American writer KaZawa's "Island Bookstore" has been read for several nights, and from the beginning to the end, the plot is not very attractive, unlike Keigo Higashino's novel, which cannot be stopped as long as you read it. But I read it with great interest, because it was a story about a reader, Amelia, an elderly girl in her thirties, was a sales representative at a publishing house, had a natural affinity and love for books, and she had countless bad dates, all because the other party did not love to read, or did not meet her reading taste, so she stubbornly chose to "live with a person who does not agree with each other than to live alone." ”
A.J． Fickley is a middle-aged man who runs a bookstore on an isolated island. He lost his wife in middle age, was downcast, had a lonely personality, and his heart was reduced to a desert island. But at this time, a 2-year-old girl named Maya was abandoned in his bookstore, and the desperate man suddenly felt warmth in his heart, he adopted this little girl, and since then, this little girl who grew up in the bookstore has also fallen in love with the bookstore, loved to read, and fell in love with writing.
It can be said that the fate between the characters of this novel all stems from the book. For example, the love of A.J and Amelia brings them together not fame and fortune, not wealth, but a heartfelt love for books, and a mutual attraction of reading interest.
For example, A.J.'s renewed love of life is also first of all to provide her adopted daughter Maya with more suitable books to read, because of the common love of books, Amelia, AJ, and Maya have become a family that loves each other.
The revelation of Maya's life is also because of the book, Maya's mother, a female college student who is not deeply involved in the world, fell in love with the writer Daniel, resulting in unmarried pregnancy, poverty but not recognized by the lover and desperate suicide. Her lover, Daniel, married A.J.'s sister-in-law, Ismail. The beautiful Ismay of his youth was also madly in love with Daniel because of his talent, but he did not expect that Daniel was a man of affair, without responsibility and responsibility, and did not recognize Maya until death.
Ismay and the sheriff were also incompatible. But it is also because of reading that two people with very different social levels and experiences have finally come together. Ismay is well-educated, romantic by nature, and what she loves is the writer whose talent pours out of her novels. The sheriff is a blue-collar worker who did not read much before, but under the influence of A.J., he also fell in love with reading, and also set up a "book club" in the town, so that more and more police officers fell in love with reading. After Daniel's car accident, Ismay accepted the sheriff's marriage proposal.
As the story unfolds, you'll be surprised to learn that A.J.'s love affair with his ex-wife, Nicole, is also because of the book. They were both unhappy about their PhDs, and although they both loved literature, they were disgusted with the topic of their dissertations. So Nicole suggested that there might be a better and happier way to have a literary life, that is, to open a bookstore, so they gave up studying and used Nicole's escrow fund to open the popular island bookstore on Alice Island. No wonder A.J. was devastated after Nicole's car accident, leaving a very bad impression on Amelia, who was first visiting the island to sell books.
Although A.J. eventually died of a brain tumor and Amelia and Maya were unable to run the bookstore, Sheriffs Rambias and Ismail bought the bookstore, and the small island bookstore in the town continued to exist.
There is a sentence in the "acknowledgment" at the end of the book that should be the finishing touch of the book: "A town without a bookstore is not a small town." This statement is similar to "a family without books is equivalent to a house without windows." For a person who loves books, a complete island cannot be without a bookstore, a good family cannot be without a bookcase, and a complete life can certainly not be without the link of reading.
Such a novel, the plot does not have a link of thrilling, the rhythm is as slow as the original face of life, the waves are not alarming, but it is like the foreign novels I have seen such as "The Kite Chaser", "The Man Who Stole the Shadow", "The Island", etc., full of warmth and ideals. One book, one world, in this impetuous age, I think only people who truly love books can calmly and joyfully touch it and feel it.