Opening
Christmas brings a seismic shift for A. J. Fikry, when a family visit, a stack of e-readers, and a cryptic short story note give way to a diagnosis that rewrites his life. With Amelia Loman and Maya Fikry at his side, A.J. learns what it means to love past language, past ownership, and past endings. The final chapters close the circle with hard choices, communal grace, and a simple purpose: to connect.
What Happens
Chapter 11: Ironhead
A.J. opens with a note on Aimee Bender’s “The Man with the Iron Head,” admitting he can’t stop thinking about it “for what I assume will be very obvious reasons.” At Christmas, his mother Paula arrives bearing e-readers for the household. A.J. explodes, seeing the devices as an existential threat to his store and to literature itself; the fight smolders until a burnt brisket and a blaring fire alarm end it. That night he rants again, and Amelia points out the practicality of an e-reader for his worsening eyesight—just as he freezes, seizes briefly, and then minimizes the episode. He confesses he’s had similar spells since Thanksgiving but resists seeing a doctor, hating his “crap” insurance and noting his recent slips—saying “chive” instead of “child.”
Weeks later he blacks out on a run. Dr. Rosen identifies aphasia and sends him to Boston, where an oncologist diagnoses glioblastoma multiforme—aggressive, advanced, and likely to recur even with costly surgery. A.J. reels at the prognosis and at the financial toll on Amelia and Maya. He decides against surgery, imagining it selfish to bankrupt them for borrowed time. Over drinks with Chief Lambiase, he shares everything, even floating suicide as the “practical” outcome. Lambiase refuses the logic, reminding A.J. of his responsibility to Maya and forcing him to reconsider what hope looks like.
Chapter 12: What We Talk about When We Talk about Love
A.J.’s accompanying note on Raymond Carver says love defies explanation—and that Amelia and Maya are his favorite people just as this is his favorite story. Reeling from the diagnosis, Lambiase goes home to Ismay Evans-Parish and admits he has long known she hid A.J.’s stolen copy of Tamerlane in her closet. He urges an anonymous return so the sale can fund A.J.’s surgery. Ismay, relieved, confesses the entire chain of events: years ago, Marian Wallace revealed her affair with Daniel Parish. Panicked, Ismay stole Tamerlane from a drunken A.J. to silence Marian. Months later Marian came back; unable to sell the book without provenance, she argued with Ismay as two-year-old Maya scribbled all over the rare volume in crayon. Soon after, Marian abandoned both the book and her child at Island Books. Ismay hid the ruined Tamerlane and her guilt.
Lambiase reframes her theft as the crooked path that delivered Maya to A.J., the act that ultimately saved his life. Following his plan, the damaged Tamerlane returns anonymously to Island Books. A.J. sends it to Christie’s, where it sells for $72,000—enough to begin treatment. Pressed by Amelia and Maya, A.J. agrees to surgery. Before the operation, he and Amelia trade gallows humor and confessions in a hospital room; when she says, “I rather like your brain,” the line lands as both a love letter and a terrified plea as they face the unknown together.
Chapter 13: The Bookseller
A.J.’s final note, attached to a Roald Dahl story he calls average, is personal: the reason it belongs on his list is not quality but connection. He concludes that the point of bookselling and living is simple: “To connect.” After surgery he endures a month of isolation for radiation. Too weak for novels, he turns to short stories on the e-reader his mother gave him and starts writing notes for Maya. The treatment fails. His prognosis shrinks to roughly a year, and aphasia tightens its grip until his speech barely holds.
In a last lucid attempt, he struggles to tell Maya, “We are what we love... We are, for as long as we are here, only love.” She can’t decipher the words; when he asks for “Love?” she hears “Gloves?” and warms his cold hands in hers. The gesture is enough. A.J. dies soon after.
The island mourns and frets over the store’s future. Needing steady income and unable to run Island Books alone, Amelia decides to sell the building. Lambiase and Ismay step in, buying and running the shop together to keep the town’s literary hearth burning. Years pass. Amelia moves to Knightley Press and, in notes to her replacement, calls Island Books a “holy place.” A young sales rep, Jacob Gardner, arrives by ferry, eager to sell books to the store’s new owners. The cycle continues.
Character Development
These chapters strip characters to essentials—love, duty, and the courage to act—then rebuild them around community.
- A. J. Fikry: Faces mortality and the erosion of his identity as a man of words. Initially refuses treatment, then accepts help; as language fails, he reaches for connection beyond speech.
- Amelia Loman: Balances fear, practicality, and fierce devotion. Her pre-op exchange reveals humor as armor; later, she prioritizes Maya’s stability over sentiment by selling the building.
- Chief Lambiase: Becomes the story’s moral ballast. He counters A.J.’s despair, engineers Tamerlane’s return, and ultimately anchors Island Books by buying it.
- Ismay Evans-Parish: Confesses the theft and her complicity in Maya’s origin story, trading secrecy for service. Co-owning the store gives her purpose and restores belonging.
- Maya Fikry: Functions as the novel’s quiet center; even when she can’t understand A.J.’s words, her presence and small kindnesses embody the love he tries to name.
Themes & Symbols
Themes:
- Love, Loss, and Second Chances peaks as A.J. confronts the loss of life and language. Tamerlane’s return doesn’t promise a cure; it offers time—enough for goodbyes, for notes to Maya, for a final imperfect expression of love. The store, too, receives a second chance under new stewardship.
- The Power of Books and Connection defines the ending. A.J.’s “To connect” reduces both vocation and existence to a shared purpose. Island Books survives its founder because community chooses it—proof that stories sustain the people who sustain them.
- Found Family and Community becomes action, not sentiment: Lambiase and Ismay don’t just grieve; they take responsibility. The island’s “family” is chosen through care, sacrifice, and stewardship.
Symbols:
- Tamerlane: Once a prize and then a burden of guilt, the defaced book turns into redemption—its sale funds treatment; its journey binds confession, forgiveness, and love.
- The E-Reader: A.J.’s symbol of cultural loss becomes a lifeline when his body weakens and attention wanes, bridging him back to stories and to Maya through the notes he writes.
- Island Books: The island’s beating heart. Its continuity after A.J.’s death embodies legacy—the idea that people end, but places of meaning endure.
Key Quotes
“For what I assume will be very obvious reasons.” A.J.’s note foreshadows his diagnosis and reveals his habit of reading life through stories. It frames fiction as a mirror he can’t look away from, even as the reflection darkens.
“I rather like your brain.” Amelia’s line distills their intimacy: she loves his mind, fears its loss, and jokes because there is nothing else to do. Humor and tenderness coexist as their shared language at the edge of the unknown.
“To connect.” A.J.’s credo collapses aesthetics, bookselling, and life into a single purpose. It is both a manifesto for Island Books and a benediction over the community that will outlast him.
“We are what we love... We are, for as long as we are here, only love.” / “Love?” “Gloves?” Language fails at the finish, but love arrives anyway—misheard words become warmed hands. The scene proves A.J.’s point: connection doesn’t depend on perfect speech to be complete.
Why This Matters and Section Significance
These chapters deliver the novel’s emotional climax and its moral resolution. Tamerlane’s mystery ties Ismay’s past to Maya’s arrival and to A.J.’s present crisis, transforming a theft into a lifeline and recasting blame as unlikely grace. A.J.’s illness tests the book’s thesis: when words vanish, connection remains.
The ending passes the torch from a single bookseller to a community. By choosing Island Books, Lambiase and Ismay ensure that A.J.’s life continues as a place, a practice, and a promise. The final ferry scene echoes the opening, reaffirming the story’s cyclical faith: individual lives are short stories, but the anthology—bookstores, readers, and the bonds between them—goes on.