In Sara Nisha Adams's sweet, pleasing debut, The Reading List, two lonely characters in contemporary London--and a host of friends and family--learn just how much books, and other people, have to offer.
Mukesh is grieving after his wife's death: "Now here he was, alone, still without any clue as to what he should do now she was gone, left in a lifeless, soulless, bookless house that had once been their home." He wishes he were as close to his granddaughter, Priya, as she was to her grandmother, but he does not share their love of reading. Then he finds an unreturned library book his late wife loved and gives it a chance.
Aleisha, 17, works at the library, but begrudgingly. Her older brother is the reader in the family. Both are slowly being crushed by their mother's oppressive depression; they've lost touch with their friends and even each other, leaving Aleisha alone in the world, traveling between work and home until even the boring local library begins to feel like a sanctuary. In a returned book, she finds a handwritten note that begins, "Just in case you need it," with a list of book titles. Not knowing why, she tucks it away.
Following a prologue introducing the titular reading list, sections of the novel are named for books (The Time Traveler's Wife, Rebecca and more); most chapters follow either Aleisha or Mukesh. In interstitial chapters labeled "The Reading List," other characters interact with the same mysterious document in their own ways--a crime thriller fan grieving a break-up; a lonely divorcé; a young woman who collects lists.
Out of guilt and boredom, Aleisha begins reading the books on the found list and recommending them to the elderly Hindu man who has tentatively begun to visit her library. Together, Mukesh and his teenaged librarian share what they read. Both are unpracticed, but each has much to gain from the developing friendship and the fictional worlds that transport them away from their daily struggles. When tragedy strikes, the friendship and the reading list may help them get through: " 'Aleisha,' Mukesh said softly. '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.' "
The Reading List is a tender novel about human connection and community and the healing power of reading, about the support and compassion that all people need at one time or another. This book is a soothing salve. --Julia Kastner, librarian and blogger at pagesofjulia
Shelf Talker: A shared reading list improves the lives of two lonely individuals in this charming novel about the power of a good book.