The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry

By: Gabrielle Zevin

Narrated by: Scott Brick

Length: 7 hrs and 2 mins

Publisher's summary

The irascible A. J. Fikry, owner of Island Books - the only bookstore on Alice Island - has already lost his wife. Now his most prized possession, a rare book, has been stolen from right under his nose in the most embarrassing of circumstances. The store itself, it seems, will be next to go.

One night upon closing, he discovers a toddler in his children’s section with a note from her mother pinned to her Elmo doll: I want Maya to grow up in a place with books and among people who care about such kinds of things. I love her very much, but I can no longer take care of her. A search for Maya’s mother, A. J.’s rare book, and good childcare advice ensues, but it doesn’t take long for the locals to notice the transformation of both bookstore and owner, something of particular interest to the lovely yet eccentric Knightley Press sales rep, Amelia Loman, who makes the arduous journey to Alice Island thrice each year to pitch her books to the cranky owner.

©2014 Gabrielle Zevin. Recorded by arrangement with Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, a division of Workman Publishing Company, Inc. (P)2014 (p) 2014 HighBridge Company

Critic reviews

"Zevin is a deft writer, clever and witty, and her affection for the book business is obvious." ( Publishers Weekly)

Delightful Story, Dreadful Narration

This is a wonderful story, made almost impossible to listen to by Scott Brick's pretentious narration! This makes half a dozen Brick books I've listened to, and I have yet to find a book that Brick narrated in such a way that it suited the story and characters. (Sorry all Scott Brick fans.)

That said, if you love books, you'll love the story of this bookstore and the delightful characters who caretake the shop on a small island on the coast of Rhode Island. Be forewarned; the first few chapters may be painful with Brick's gratuitous enunciations, inflections and lack of character accents. It took me some time to get beyond the narration, but the story grabbed me, so I resigned myself to Brick's faults and went forward.

It is a very contemporary story about the plight of today's independent book sellers. The story has lots of great twists and turns for all of the story's characters which gave this book great charm.

I halfway wish I would have read the story from a real paper book. That way, I could have imagined the tone of voice and accents that Zevin surely intended his characters to have.

Nice feel good book about a bookstore owner

The storied life of A. J. Firky is a wonderful story. My favorite character is Maya, his "wonderful nerd" as her dad called her. Scott Brick, my favorite narrator, is not the ideal narrator for this book.

Sweet Story

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Probably not, but I might leave it at a beach house or on a boat for someone to find. There's nothing deep about this book, but it's heartwarming and pleasant. Just right when your in the mood to lounge. It's a book about second chances.

This is what reading, listening is all about!

What a wonderful funny, sad and thought provoking book. I heartily recommend it. It made me chuckle and wish it would never end...sigh.

Beautiful story

Couldn't stop listening! Happy and sad moments blended so well. Loved the unexpected twists and turns

Good Story About Ordinary People-- Not Great

I can't imagine where the reviewers who said this book was "cutesy" and "everything works out perfectly" were coming from. It seems more like a grim reality filled with somewhat unrealistically resilient people to me. The book has a very large share of death, lonliness, and poverty. Being a bibliophile, I enjoyed the depictions of the book store, authors, and the book store, however various plot lines could have used more development and the tragedies were poorly explained/developed. I get somewhat tired of reading about the bad things thst just randomly happen to people every day, like random illness, unless there's something profound attached to it or it drives the plot.

A Tad Predictable

Though I anticipated many plot twists and turns, the language was so well crafted that I enjoyed the experience. I can only hope the sentiment of the author expresses at the end about the survival of bookstores becomes truth.

Human and full of heart

I forgot just how good it is to listen to a great audio book, a book that draws you so completely into it's own world for a while that when it's done, you have to turn off the audio for a while and just sit back and absorb it.

It's a small book about normal people who might live next door to you. There are no world changing events, no great ideas, no wars, no great passionate drama.

But it is a real gem of a book because the characters seem so completely human, warts and all. You come to love Fikry (and his family) despite his flaws and get drawn into his life which is both extraordinary and ordinary at the same time. Zevin maintains a sense of humor and a sense of the absurdity of human life while telling a moving, bittersweet story.

And if you are a book lover, the setting in a little, slowly failing, independent bookstore with lots of literary references is a great added bonus.

Scott Brick does a superb job bringing this book to life. Definitely one of my most favorite audio books in a long time.

Enjoyable Tale

This wasn't my choice of books. It was a friend of mine who convinced me to choose this book for my book club the month I hosted the book club. I tend to choose a more dramatic type of book. This could be turned into a delightful rom-com, and the story doesn't require lots of intense concentration. The performance of the book was excellent, and the story itself was delightful.

Unique story filled with real lives.

When I first started listening, I was disappointed. However, it sucked me in and I couldn’t stop listening. AJ was such a jerk but then he grew on me. I began to see the characters and feel their plights. As it came to an end, I longed for more. A moving story and heartfelt characters.