The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper

February 15, 2016
Patrick’s debut novel evokes whimsy and poignancy. Since Miriam, his wife of 40 years, died a year ago, 69-year-old Arthur Pepper stopped living; he merely exists, until he finds a gold charm bracelet he’d never seen before tucked inside one of her shoes. The first of the bracelet’s eight charms is a bejeweled elephant inscribed with a phone number. He calls it and is shocked to learn that Miriam once lived in India. He sets about exploring the other charms—including a tiger, a locket, and a thimble—which take him from Yorkshire to a manor house in Bath long past its glory days, and further afield, to London and Paris. While unraveling Miriam’s past, Arthur realizes that his outward journey is also a journey within, and in a comically heartwarming fashion he attempts to embrace the unknown while slowly discovering his positive impact on others. This is a sweet story with an almost magical, but never saccharine denouement, as a newly whole Arthur Pepper emerges. Agent: Clare Wallace, Darley Anderson Agency.

February 15, 2016
Nothing otherworldly happens in this feel-good debut novel, yet the story of an English widower who goes rummaging in his late wife's past has the quality of a fable.A mild-mannered pensioner from York, the title character--described by an ex-girlfriend as "timid and a bit twitchy"--is tethered to his domestic routines, hardly ever leaving the house. All that changes when he happens upon a mysterious gold bracelet--with eight distinctive charms--that belonged to his beloved wife, Miriam. Screwing up his courage, he embarks on a journey that will take him far from his comfort zone as he tracks down the story behind each ornament. Along the way, our 69-year-old hero finds himself fending off a tiger, having an audience with a famous author who may or may not have been his wife's lover, getting mugged in a Tube station, and posing naked for an art class. Unsurprisingly, he learns as much about himself through these adventures as he does about Miriam. The writing is breezy, and Arthur's escapades are, well, charming, at least some of the time. The book flirts with real emotion, too: Arthur's grief over the loss of his wife is palpable, and his sadness at the estrangement of his adult children feels quite genuine. You may even, against your better judgment, shed a few tears as he endeavors to set things right with them. Yet each bad turn in the book comes wrapped in a teachable moment; each cloud has an unmistakable silver lining. The author's outlook remains relentlessly upbeat, and in the end, this sentimental novel is as cozy and fortifying as a hot cup of tea on a cold afternoon.

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Starred review from February 1, 2016

Arthur Pepper lives a simple life, eventless since his beloved wife, Miriam, died: same food, same clothes, same daily routine. On the one-year anniversary of her death, something changes. While painfully sorting through her possessions, Arthur finds an exquisite gold charm bracelet he never saw her wear. On the chain are an elephant, a tiger, a book, a heart, a palette, and other charms. Curious, Arthur begins a search for the origin of these trinkets that takes him from New York to London, Paris, and India. Not only is Arthur's life amazingly altered, but he learns much more about Miriam and the choice she made when she married him. VERDICT Tender, insightful, and surprising, this wonderful debut novel is a stunning addition to the popular genre of transformative stories of otherwise uneventful lives. It will instantly capture the hearts of readers who loved Rachel Joyce's The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, Nina George's The Little Paris Bookshop, and Antoine Laurain's The Red Notebook.--Susan Clifford Braun, Bainbridge Island, WA

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 15, 2016
A year after the death of his wife, Miriam, Arthur Pepper discovers a charm bracelet she'd hidden away, and the charms point to parts of her life he'd never known during their 40 years of marriage. Arthur sets out on a quest to uncover the provenance of the charms. From a family home in India to a tumbledown English manor to an author's home in London to a Parisian wedding-dress shop, Arthur is surprised and rattled by the places, people, and experiences he discovers shaped Miriam's life before their simple, content existence in York. With the help of his adult children and a meddlesome neighbor, Bernadette, Arthur realizes that what their life lacked in adventure was made up for in abiding love. Patrick's debut novel tells a sweet and poignant story about marriage, grief, and memory. Readers will find bumbling, earnest Arthur utterly endearing.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)