June 1, 2023
Carl Kollhoff spends his evenings traversing his small German town, delivering books to customers of the bookstore where he has worked for decades. For most of these people, Carl is the only outside human contact they have, and Carl prides himself on providing them the exact books that will satisfy their reading tastes. And then one day, Schascha, a nine-year-old girl in a sunshine-yellow coat, appears and bursts into his carefully ordered routine. With the new owner of the bookstore threatening to suspend the book-delivery service and Schascha causing him to rethink the role he plays in his customers' lives, Carl questions what his future will look like. This slim novel is a warm and heartfelt story about the myriad ways books create connections between people. Readers who love Fredrik Backman and books about books, such as The Last Chance Library (2021), by Freya Sampson, and The Reading List (2021), by Sara Nisha Adams, should pick up this charming story about the power of books and reading.
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January 19, 2024
Henn makes his U.S. debut with this languidly paced and heartwarming charmer. Carl Christian Kollhoff has spent his long career working in a bookstore, hand-delivering personalized picks to customers. As he walks through his small town, some of whose medieval streets are still unpaved, every reader he visits has reasons to worry about the world. One remains housebound, another endures domestic abuse. Their fortunes take a worse turn when the daughter of the bookstore's owner takes over the shop and hangs Carl out to dry, both because she feels that hand delivery is antiquated and because she's jealous of Carl's close relationship with her father. During one of his dwindling deliveries, Carl finds a new friend, a nine-year-old girl who is a bright ray of disruption in his otherwise orderly life. She has spied him on his route and wants to join in. It might seem a small thing to deliver a book, but in the tradition of the most epic of tales, the Carl and the girl change the fates of many, including their own. VERDICT A best seller in Germany, this novel hits all the right notes. It will evoke A Man Called Ove and delight readers who, like Carl, understand life through the power of books.--Neal Wyatt
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