The Reading List

About this book

An unforgettable and heartwarming debut about how a chance encounter and a list of library books helps forge an unlikely friendship between two very different peoplea lonely London widower and a troubled teenager. Widower Mukesh lives a quiet life in the London Borough of Ealing after losing his beloved wife. He shops every Wednesday goes to Temple and worries about his granddaughter Priya who hides in her room reading while he spends his evenings watching nature documentaries. Aleisha is a bright but anxious teenager working at the local library for the summer when she discovers a crumpled-up piece of paper in the back of To Kill a Mockingbird. Its a list of novels that shes never heard of before. Intrigued and a little bored with her slow job at the checkout desk she impulsively decides to read every book on the list one after the other. As each story gives up its magic the books transport Aleisha from the painful realities shes facing at home. When Mukesh arrives at the library desperate to forge a connection with his bookworm granddaughter Aleisha passes along the reading listhoping that it will be a lifeline for him too. Slowly the shared books create a connection between two lonely souls as fiction helps them escape their grief and everyday troubles and find joy again.