The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend

Starred review from January 11, 2016
Swedish author Bivald's debut novel is a delight. Erstwhile bookseller Sara Lindqvist has traveled from her home in Sweden to the tiny town of Broken Wheel, Iowa, in order to spend time relaxing and reading with her pen pal, Amy Harris, but what she finds upon arriving is that she's just in time for Amy's funeral. Sara is bewildered but the townsfolk insist that she stay in Amy's house and generally refuse to let her pay for anything. She decides to give back by opening Amy's old store and sharing Amy's books with the community. Bivald fills the pages with book references, chief among them Austen and Bridget Jones, but it is her characters that will win readers over. Sara is unassuming and, as an outsider, provides a wonderful view of the Iowans. Amy's nephew, Tom Harris, Poor George, Caroline Rohde, and the rest all bear their own hurts and each is, in some way, healed by Sara's presence and her books. As in Austen, love conquers but just who and how will come as a pleasant surprise.

November 1, 2015
In this sleepy charmer, a Swedish bookseller finds friendship, love, and more books in the small town of Broken Wheel, Iowa. Sara Lindqvist has barely left the airport when she learns from the local townspeople that her longtime American pen pal, Amy Harris, has died. Too disappointed to catch a return flight home, Sara reluctantly stays at Amy's house, which the deceased woman's neighbors have already cleaned and stocked with food for Sara's arrival. Though its population is dwindling, Broken Wheel is endearingly quaint. The residents barter for what they need, and much of Sara's time is spent trying to overcome the oppressive niceness of nosy neighbors who won't even let her pay for her own drinks at the town's only bar, much less pay rent on Amy's house. Sara didn't have much going on in her life prior to landing in the middle of nowhere, so she's blissfully unaware that her thirst for adventure has led her to an adventure desert. But the sweetness that ensues makes up for the plot's ambling pace. Desperate for something to do, Sara uses Amy's book collection--a hodgepodge of classic literature, chick lit, and even erotica--to turn an abandoned hardware store into a neighborhood bookstore. Her thank-you gift to the townspeople quickly becomes a tourist attraction, turning Broken Wheel into a hotbed of romance and progressive ideas. As Sara learns her neighbors' secrets through Amy's books, Amy lives on in old letters that fill in the missing details. Sara's time in Iowa is limited, but her new friends suspect that if she and her neighbor Tom can admit their feelings for each other, she might be there for good. Between the book references and the idyllic setting, readers won't want to leave Broken Wheel, either.

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Starred review from August 1, 2015

As luck would have it, the day Sara arrives in Broken Wheel, IA, from Sweden to meet her book-loving pen pal Amy, the townsfolk are just leaving Amy's funeral. Tourists are rare in this tiny, depressed town and the residents gather around Sara, sharing their stories of their departed friend. Sara stays in Amy's house, surrounded by her huge collection of books, and is comforted by the warmth of this quirky community. There's not much to do and Sara has little drawing her back to Sweden, so she decides to take Amy's books and open a cozy bookstore in a derelict downtown storefront. With little money to buy books, Sara simply begins sharing Amy's books with her friends. Gradually, the good citizens of Broken Wheel realize that a bookstore and Sara are what they need. How they go about ensuring that Sara can stay and the store can thrive is at the core of this heartwarming and utterly charming debut novel by Swedish author Bivald. VERDICT This gentle, intelligent Midwestern tale will captivate fans of Antoine Laurain's The Red Notebook, Nina George's The Little Paris Bookshop, and Gabrielle Zevin's The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry. An ideal book group selection, it reminds us why we are book lovers and why it's nice to read a few happy endings.--Susan Clifford Braun, Bainbridge Island, WA

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 15, 2015
In what is clearly a case of the world's worst timing, Sara Lindqvist arrives in the ramshackle town of Broken Wheel, Iowa, on the day of Amy Harris' funeral, having abandoned her ho-hum life in Hannige, Sweden, to meet the woman she knows only through the books they've swapped and letters they've shared. Unwilling to return home without getting to know firsthand the people and places Amy described in her correspondence, Sara decides to rescue one of the town's many abandoned storefronts and open a shop using Amy's eclectic trove of books. A mutual-appreciation society soon forms between the town's eccentric residents and this devout reader with an uncanny knack for turning the grumpiest bibliophobe into a grateful bibliophile. With Sara's tourist visa about to expire, a coterie of her most devoted admirers quickly concocts a cockamamy scheme to keep Sara with them permanently. Touching and lively, Bivald's genuine homage to the power of books vibrates with fondness for small-town life and fascination with its indelible connections.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)