"What are you reading now?" The Reading List, by Sarah Nisha Adams

 Josefa's contribution

Source: Goodreads.com

I have recently read The Reading List, by Sarah Nisha Adams. The writer's debut novel, published in 2021. 

"Please try to remember that books aren't always an escape; sometimes books teach us things. They show us the world; they don't hide it." 

This is what Mukesh, a lonely widower struggling with grief, tells Aleisha, a lonely teenager who disdains her summer job at Harrow Road Library (Wembley, London), while dealing with her own heartbreaks at home. This book is a homage to books, reading, librarians, and book lovers everywhere. The themes in the book are: family dynamics, love, friendship, loss, community, the transformative impact of stories and books, grief, the reward of intergenerational friendship, loneliness, mental illness, self doubt, the benefits of reading... The message of this gentel, touching, heartwarming novel is as one of the characters says: "Books, they have the power to heal." Books also have the power to bring people together. The story also has some flaws: it is predictable and the exploration of the books is uneven, i.e. some are explored in-depth while others are cursorily tackled. All in all, this is comfort reading for book lovers. 

Source: westvanlibrary.ca