While I should be writing

Washington Post has reviewed The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend, calling it “charmingly original”. I have never seriously considered the question of a sequel, especially since by definition, the first thing you have to do is destroy all your happy endings to create new problems for characters that have already, in my opinion, been through enough in the hands of a sadistic writer (and you have to be sadistic as a writer).

But I have to admit, the idea of a serie is surprisingly fun – especially when it comes with great suggestions such as these:

Alongside their scheme involving Sara, the readers of Broken Wheel have their own matters of the heart to attend to, including unresolved grief, unresolved child custody and unresolved sexual orientation. In fact, there’s so much material here, it might be easy for Bivald to write a sequel to this novel or spin it into a series. “The Readers of Broken Wheel” could “Celebrate,” “Demand” or “Travel” next.

Read the entire review here

In what is (objectively speaking, of course) probably the best book launching campaign ever, my publisher Sourcebooks is encouraging readers to recommend their favourite bookstore. Isn’t it great?

Anyone can nominate their favorite bookstore here. Sourcebooks will award the winning bookstore with a $3,000 prize; two additional bookstores will each receive a $637 prize. (The specific dollar figure of the second prize is a nod to the book, as 637 is the population of Bivald’s fictional Broken Wheel, Iowa.) As part of the campaign Sourcebooks will also give weekly prizes to those who submit nominations.

The campaign began January 4, and runs until February 19, when the winning bookstores will be announced.

This, of course, made me wish I had created a much larger town. Let’s give some love to all the wonderful indie bookstores out there!

So, in just about two weeks, my book will be published in the US, and it is of course absolutely amazing. Being published in the US in general is amazing (I confess that my first thought when hearing about it was: Broken Wheel will be able to read about themselves!), and so far everyone has been increadibly nice about it.

Here’s what a few people are saying about it so far:

#1 Indie January 2016 Next Great Read Pick

“One of the conundrums facing a true bibliophile has always been: books or people? Sara has spent her entire life in Sweden working in a bookshop and her answer has always been obvious: books. An unexpected pen pal relationship with Amy — an older book lover from Iowa — challenges that easy answer and forces her to reconsider her view of herself and the world. After months of corresponding, trading books and sharing details of one another’s lives, Amy invites Sara to come visit her one-stoplight town, Broken Wheel, for a summer of reading and getting to know small-town America. However, when Sara arrives, she is greeted by Amy’s funeral procession. Thousands of miles from home, with a return ticket dated two months hence, Sara is at a loss for what to do. So, naturally, with Amy’s collection of books, she opens a bookstore. Filled with familiar literary references, charming and quirky townsfolk, and plenty of scheming, plotting, and shenanigans that could only occur in a place like Broken Wheel, Bivald’s feel-good novel explores that ever-present question: books or people? Read the book and enjoy reaching your own conclusions.” —Erin Figel, pages: a bookstore, Manhattan Beach, CA – See more here

Amazon.com Best Book of the Month:

“Much like champagne punch, Bivald’s book-club-perfect tale of the tiny and slowly dying town of Broken Wheel, Iowa, is frothy and fun even as it sneaks up on you to deliver an emotional wallop. When Sara, a young Swedish woman who is at loose ends after losing her bookseller job, comes to visit her pen pal Amy in Broken Wheel, her first shock is that Amy has just died from a chronic ailment. The second surprise is that the citizens of Broken Wheel expect Sara to stay in Amy’s house anyway. When Sara uncovers Amy’s delightful stash of books, Sara decides to open a bookstore in the one-block-long downtown, inadvertently sparking a renaissance in Broken Wheel as the residents come together to help the store become a success. Garnished with plenty of book and character references from popular books such as Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe and Bridget Jones’s Diary, this charming fish-out-of-water story will remind you why you’re a booklover.”—Adrian Liang

Nina George, New York Times bestselling author of The Little Paris Bookshop:“A manifesto for booksellers, booklovers, and friendship. We should all celebrate these little bookstores, where our souls find home… one of these books you want to live in for a while.”

Nickolas Butler, internationally bestselling author of Shotgun Lovesongs and Beneath the Bonfire: “The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend is one of the more surprisingly improbable and delightful books I’ve read in years.  What begins as an unlikely international friendship based on a mutual love of books becomes a sweet and soulful discovery of America.  Quirky, unpredictable, funny, and fresh – a wonderful book.”

So, I’m going to the US in a few days to meet a friend. I’m flying in to meet him in Portland, where he used to work and study, and then we’re driving to Oakland/San Francisco together, where he lives today. Naturally, I’m thrilled to get to spend time with him, but, more importantly: the bookshops!

I’ve already emailed my American publisher asking them to recommend some great ones, and they have, of course, delivered. So now I just have to tell my friend about my new plan to spend two of our ten days together on a bookshop extravaganza.

Then again, he knows me quite well. He might have already seen it coming.

Do you have any great bookshops in Portland or San Francisco (or Oakland) for me?

And now I realized that after that, I really have nothing more to add to this post except, of course, isn’t it amazing?