The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend by Katarina Bivald

Written by Kristy Dolson

This month, in the absence of a pressing theme, I was free to choose any book that struck my fancy. And, since my last two reviews came down on the heavy side, this month I’m bringing you a light-hearted, small-town novel that’s a love letter to books and bookworms everywhere. The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend by Katarina Bivald is so delightful and upbeat you’ll forget that the story begins with the death of an elderly lady and has the protagonist living in said deceased woman’s home for the majority of the book!

The novel opens with Sara, our introverted protagonist, arriving from Sweden in Broken Wheel, Iowa, for a holiday. This is her first trip overseas, and she’s been invited by Amy, her pen pal of two years. While a dying town in Iowa may seem like a strange choice, she’s excited to have an adventure of her own. Unfortunately, Sara gets more real-life adventure than she bargained for when she discovers that Amy had unexpectedly passed away a mere days before her arrival. Not sure how to react to this odd situation, but deciding to stay despite it, the town welcomes Sara and takes care of her in Amy’s stead. However, when Sara decides to open a bookshop stocked with Amy’s vast book collection, things get a bit out of hand.

This is a booklover’s book. Once begun, I couldn’t put it down, chuckling out loud and absolutely loving how much of myself I found within the pages. Every character in the novel feels like a real person, fully fleshed out and brimming with personality. And it’s these characters – their fears, flaws, hopes, and desires – that make the reading experience a true joy. Normally, the critic in me rages in fury over implausible romances and predictable plot twists, but this book is so quirky and charming that I actively applauded the predictability and feel-good ending. I’d happily read an entire series based on the residents of Broken Wheel.

The novel is written in the third-person omniscient and mainly follows Sara as she gets to know the town’s residents, but it switches to other people occasionally as the narrative expands. Just a warning: sometimes these transitions are clunky, and the reader may end up feeling a bit lost. I’ve read enough Swedish books in translation to know that they can often be vague and disorienting on purpose, so I’m not sure if that was intentional or something that resulted from Alice Menzies’ translation. In any case, the characters are charming enough to overlook these infrequent transition snags.

There are no big issues or moral questions in this novel. It’s a celebration of the bookish experience, like one of Sara’s “Happy Endings Guaranteed” for when you’ve crossed those heavy hitters off your to-read list and need something whimsical to give yourself a break. The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend is a small-town narrative with implausible romances, larger-than-life personalities, and a feel-good ending that I absolutely recommend to all booklovers and book clubs.

Now if I could just open a bookshop in a foreign country with the same incredible ease that Sara did, it would be a dream come true.

The Author
Kristy Dolson lived in South Korea for five years before taking a year off to travel, read, and spend time with her family in Canada and Australia. She holds a Bachelor of Education and has just returned to Gwangju, where she splits her time between teaching Korean teachers at JETI and reading as much as she can. (Photo by Lisa Crone)