The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend

Preschool Parents Book Club were fortunate to read this through The Reading Agency's Noticeboard and we absolutely loved it, enjoying picking out the book references. We loved how books transformed lives in this story (as they do in real life) and although predictable, the book has a lovely ending that suits the feel of this warm-hug-of-a-book. A joy to read.

Sara has come to a crossroads. She’s 28, never been outside Sweden and has recently been made redundant from the book shop job she loved. Having lived most of her life through books, she decides to step out from between the covers to visit her elderly penfriend, Amy, in Broken Wheel, Iowa. But nothing goes to plan; she arrives in Broken Wheel to find the residents are gathered at Amy’s wake, and Broken Wheel seems desolate and unloved.

As Sara dithers about whether to stay or go, she gets to know the characters that Amy knew and loved. For something to do she starts up a temporary bookshop and by doing so begins to reach out to all the members of the community, but has her arrival come too late to save the town?

I loved this gentle and uplifting book, with quirky but believable characters and a lovely central character who knows the power of a good book!

Unashamedly feel-good story about a Swedish woman bringing books to a washed-up town in Iowa. Slightly quirky with a Scandinavian undertow which saves it from schmaltz overload. Chapters are short – good for those struggling to maintain concentration.

I enjoyed this book. I found it very interesting. Intriguing & quite a novelty to read other authors being discussed. Just an easy read for book worms like myself. The ending was as expected but beautifully written.

Oh we thoroughly enjoyed this wonderful book about the power of books and how they can transform lives - a funny, light read, perfect for the summer. Sara quite literally brings Hope to Broken Wheel through books! We now have a long list of books to read thanks to Sara and Amy's references and debated as Sara and Amy did who they prefer: 'Books Vs people' (answer: yes, on the underground!) Thank you Reading Agency and Katarina Bivald for a wonderful book club read.

We read this book for our June meeting and found that it provoked plenty of discussion, in fact, we nearly over-ran there was so much to discuss. We really enjoyed the beginning of the book and felt that the book would make a great film. There were some really nice literary references that we enjoyed picking out and we would have liked to see more of this in the later parts of the book. It's a really good title to do for a reading group because there is a lot to draw out, particularly with the different characters.