THE READERS OF BROKEN WHEEL RECOMMEND is a charming and witty feel-good novel about the power of friendship, the love of books and finding one’s place in the world.

What makes you pick up a book? Do you head straight for the Classics section, for the thrillers or chick lit or literary heavyweights?

In Broken Wheel’s new bookshop things work a little differently. How about something from the Sex, Violence and Weapons shelf? Or, if you’re looking for something a bit cosier, how about Small-Town Life (though please beware the dangers of Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath and take note of the ‘Warning: unhappy ending!’ sign)? Whatever your tastes and predilections, you’re sure to find your perfect book.

And already the residents of Broken Wheel - from Grace (nee Madeleine, who takes her inspiration from Idgie in Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe) to George (recovering alcoholic, likes cleaning and Bridget Jones) to Caroline (the church was her life… until she discovered the delights of the shop’s most secret shelf) - have begun to see that once you let books into your life, the most unexpected things can happen…

The International Bestseller

This is a book about books. All sorts of books, from Little Women and Harry Potter to Jodi Picoult and Jane Austen, from to Stieg Larsson to Joyce Carol Oates to Proust. It’s about the joy and pleasure of books, about learning from and escaping into them, and possibly even hiding behind them. It’s about whether or not books are better than real life.

It’s also a book about a Swedish girl called Sara, her elderly American penfriend Amy and what happens when you land a very different kind of bookshop in the middle of a town so broken it’s almost beyond repair.

Or is it?

The Readers of Broken Wheel has touches of 84 Charing Cross Road, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society and Chocolat, but adds an off-beat originality and intelligence all its own.