The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper
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4.3 • 501 Ratings
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
From the author of Rise and Shine Benedict Stone, now an original movie on Hallmark.
“An endearing celebration of life.” -RealSimple.com
Perfect for fans of A Man Called Ove, this curiously charming debut follows a lovable widower and his life-changing adventure of love and self-discovery.
Sixty-nine-year-old Arthur Pepper lives a simple life. He gets out of bed at precisely 7:30 a.m., just as he did when his wife, Miriam, was alive. He dresses in the same gray slacks and mustard sweater vest, waters his fern, Frederica, and heads out to his garden.
But on the one-year anniversary of Miriam’s death, something changes. Sorting through Miriam’s possessions, Arthur finds an exquisite gold charm bracelet he’s never seen before. What follows is a surprising and unforgettable odyssey that takes Arthur from London to Paris and as far as India in an epic quest to find out the truth about his wife’s secret life before they met—a journey that leads him to find hope and healing in the most unexpected places.
Featuring an unforgettable cast of characters with big hearts and irresistible flaws, The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper is a joyous reminder of life’s infinite possibilities.
Don’t miss Phaedra Patrick’s winning new novel, The Messy Lives of Book People!
Check out these other heartwarming stories from Phaedra Patrick:
Rise and Shine, Benedict Stone
The Library of Lost and Found
The Secrets of Love Story Bridge
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Patrick's debut novel evokes whimsy and poignancy. Since Miriam, his wife of 40 years, died a year ago, 69-year-old Arthur Pepper stopped living; he merely exists, until he finds a gold charm bracelet he'd never seen before tucked inside one of her shoes. The first of the bracelet's eight charms is a bejeweled elephant inscribed with a phone number. He calls it and is shocked to learn that Miriam once lived in India. He sets about exploring the other charms including a tiger, a locket, and a thimble which take him from Yorkshire to a manor house in Bath long past its glory days, and further afield, to London and Paris. While unraveling Miriam's past, Arthur realizes that his outward journey is also a journey within, and in a comically heartwarming fashion he attempts to embrace the unknown while slowly discovering his positive impact on others. This is a sweet story with an almost magical, but never saccharine denouement, as a newly whole Arthur Pepper emerges.
Customer Reviews
Very nice book
The style was simple and straightforward
All in all I liked it
A little too long, but very worthwhile
Really deserves 4.5 stars from me. Partly a lovable quirky character story, part mystery, part late-life reawakening story, this novel held my interest until the last 20%, when I started to kind of wish it would wrap up. But if you need a little humor in your life, a little hope or a reminder of how precious life is I would recommend this book. I liked it well enough that I’m going to try another book by this author.
Delightful book
Highly recommend spending some time with Arthur on his journey through learning new things about himself as he works through his grief from losing his wife of 40 years. It sounds like this would be a depressing book, but it truly isn’t. Arthur is on a quest to learn about the charms on a charm bracelet hidden among his wife’s things when he makes the choice to clean out his wife’s side of the closet. As he learns more about her life before he met her, he begins to wonder if their entire marriage was a lie. Don’t miss this journey.