The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend is the first novel by Swedish author, Katarina Bivald. After some years of correspondence with Amy Harris, Sara Lindqvist, until recently employed at Josephsson’s Bokhandel, has come from Sweden for a vacation visit to Broken Wheel, Iowa. The first problem is that Amy has just died. The second is that, while she is staying in Amy’s guest room, no one will accept her rental payment. The third problem is that no one in Broken Wheel will let her pay for anything. And Sara can see that this run-down, dying town really can’t afford a free-loading tourist, nor does she want to be one.

But Sara and Amy shared a love of books, so Sara gets an idea of something she can do for the town. It’s fairly obvious where this is going… With help from the townsfolk, Sara cleans up a dusty shop and turns it into a bookstore. People come from nearby towns, a bit of derision leads to some fun literary antics, and Sara has the town’s residents (and others) reading. Along the way, Sara meets, and gets to personally know, all those quirky folk that Amy wrote about. But Sara’s visa is going to run out, and the town soon cooks up a scheme to hold onto this tourist they would like to keep.

Bivald’s charming debut novel is a tale about books and bookstores, but also about small towns and the special people that inhabit them, in this case from a Swedish perspective. There’s definitely a touch of Debbie Macomber here: while Bivald manages to include some unconventional pairings, this is a feel-good tale that will be especially enjoyed by booklovers and those who love happy endings. Flawlessly translated from Swedish by Alice Menzies, this one is likely to be Recommended by the Readers of Broken Wheel.




Marianne (Australia) (2018/12/21):
5 stars

The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend is the first novel by Swedish author, Katarina Bivald. After some years of correspondence with Amy Harris, Sara Lindqvist, until recently employed at Josephsson’s Bokhandel, has come from Sweden for a vacation visit to Broken Wheel, Iowa. The first problem is that Amy has just died. The second is that, while she is staying in Amy’s guest room, no one will accept her rental payment. The third problem is that no one in Broken Wheel will let her pay for anything. And Sara can see that this run-down, dying town really can’t afford a free-loading tourist, nor does she want to be one.

But Sara and Amy shared a love of books, so Sara gets an idea of something she can do for the town. It’s fairly obvious where this is going… With help from the townsfolk, Sara cleans up a dusty shop and turns it into a bookstore. People come from nearby towns, a bit of derision leads to some fun literary antics, and Sara has the town’s residents (and others) reading. Along the way, Sara meets, and gets to personally know, all those quirky folk that Amy wrote about. But Sara’s visa is going to run out, and the town soon cooks up a scheme to hold onto this tourist they would like to keep.

Bivald’s charming debut novel is a tale about books and bookstores, but also about small towns and the special people that inhabit them, in this case from a Swedish perspective. There’s definitely a touch of Debbie Macomber here: while Bivald manages to include some unconventional pairings, this is a feel-good tale that will be especially enjoyed by booklovers and those who love happy endings. Flawlessly translated from Swedish by Alice Menzies, this one is likely to be Recommended by the Readers of Broken Wheel.