The Reading List

Mukesh is a widower in Wembley, in the London Borough of Brent's quiet streets. Since his wife died, his evenings pass in front of nature documentaries. He worries about his granddaughter, Priya, who spends her time shut in her room with a book, and he does not know how to reach her.

Aleisha is a bright teenager with a summer job at the local library. Tucked inside a copy of To Kill a Mockingbird, she finds a crumpled sheet of paper listing novels she has never heard of. On impulse, she decides to read every one.

When Mukesh comes into the library hoping to find a way into his bookworm granddaughter's world, Aleisha hands him the list. The two begin reading the same books, and a connection forms between a grieving old man and a teenager who is lonely in her own way.

This is contemporary fiction about grief, loneliness and the pull of other people's stories. The tone is gentle and the pace unhurried, with the focus on small domestic moments and on how a shared book gives two people something to talk about and a little joy to return to.