Never have I read a more charming story centered around the sleepy lives of Midwesterners than the one I found within the pages of Swedish author’s Katarina Bivald’s first outbreak novel, The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend.  In her novel full of surprise, laughter, unlikely friendship, and quick wit, Bivald takes you on a journey — along with main character and Swedish traveller, Sara Lindquist — to the tiny farm town of Broken Wheel, Iowa, on her quest to escape the monotony of her homeland Sweden, as well as finally meet her elderly pen pal and fellow lover of books. In many ways, the town is as broken as its name, because upon her arrival to the quiet and quaint town of Broken Wheel, Sara is shocked to find her trip was not what she was expecting.

Though her venture to the States does not go as planned, Sara finds hidden blessings in uncertainty. By going out of her comfort zone for the first time in her life, she makes friends that would have never met her in that comfort zone in the first place. Readers too will find a friend in George, the gruff old town alcoholic with a soft heart who is forever losing his mind in longing for his lost daughter. Perhaps you will want to accompany the uptight yet ridiculously thoughtful Caroline on one of her many errands as church lady for Broken Wheel. Readers will admire restaurant owner Grace and will laugh aloud at all of her brutally honest sarcasm about small-town life. You are bound to fall head over heels for Tom just as Sara does, despite his mysterious shyness and desperate desire to escape Broken Wheel.

Inspired by the eccentricities of Broken Wheel and roles each quirky townsperson serve, Sara’s passion leads her to open a little bookstore in a long abandoned shop off of Main Street. Selflessly donating every book she owns to this bookstore, she builds up from the ground Broken Wheel’s newest tourist attraction, bringing in hundreds of visitors to a town that hasn’t had visitors in over 50 years. According to Sara, she names it Oak Tree Bookstore in homage to the “trees that give their lives for the benefit of our knowledge”. Sara’s motto for the store is “There is a person for every book and a book for every person.”

Although the book boasts an odd plot, stranger things have happened than a young and restless European girl finding her escape in an unknown small town. In fact, Parkway South has been known to be a very diverse school, as many foreign exchange students venture to our little piece of the Midwest through the club AFS. This book is perfect for those who have already befriended some of our foreign exchange guests and would like to see our quaint, Midwestern life through a European traveler’s eyes.  The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend stands alone in successfully providing a unique perspective that is rarely found in modern novels.

I bought this book at my all time favorite bookstore, Subterranean Books, on Delmar Boulevard for $16.99. However, it can also be bought on Amazon for $6.53, on Kindle for $9.99, and at Barnes and Noble for $10.51. Although I did not have the knowledge that I could find it cheaper elsewhere, I believe my purchase of Broken Wheel was definitely worth the high price typical of a city bookstore. Though published in September 2013, my only regret is that this novel would have came to my attention earlier. From start to finish of this whopping 364 page novel, I was hooked. The excessive page length hardly even phased me as I began becoming more and more attached to this quirky, broken but beautiful little town and its inhabitants. It is definitely one for the shelves, for I want nothing more than to walk into Sara’s bookstore and have her pick out a book for me. The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend is truly a beautiful novel, written by a bookworm for other bookworms.