Libby Page's sixth novel, This Book Made Me Think of You, is a gift that keeps on giving. Tilly Nightingale stopped reading when her husband, Joe Carter, was diagnosed with cancer. Tilly is an editor who grew up in Hay-on-Wye, where "every shop... [is] a bookshop." She met Joe in the Foyles bookshop on Charing Cross Road. For her to lose interest in books clearly signals a deeper sense of desolation. The novel opens six months after Joe's death, when Alfie Lane, manager of Book Lane bookshop in central London, phones Tilly on January 5--her birthday--to tell her he has a book for her from one Joe Carter. She thinks it's a mistake; he asks her to come in so he can explain.
Thus begins a year-long odyssey for Tilly, through Joe's gift of a book per month for the entire year. This at first draws her back into her love of reading, then gets her cooking, running, and traveling, to Bali, Paris, and Tuscany. Wild Camping, for instance, inspires Tilly to enlist Alfie's help setting up a tent in a nearby park. As the months go on, a friendship grows between Tilly and Alfie. While other people disappear, or try to "help," or don't know what to say, Alfie always has a kind word.
With a light touch and deep insight, Page insightfully depicts Tilly's journey through grief as two steps forward, one step back. This Book Made Me Think of You is an eloquent and passionate ode to book lovers, book shops, and booksellers, And it is a book that offers hope to those who've experienced great loss. --Jennifer M. Brown