The best book of my adulthood

And finally, after 5 weeks of waiting, the time comes to announce the winner of this little series. My friends will not be surprised by my choice. The first place, and the gold medal goes to…

I might or might not have an English Kindle version, an English printed version, an English audiobook, and a Czech translation of this book. I might or might not have been searching for a French version when I was in Paris in May this year and planning to translate the book into Czech before I knew the translation was already in the making. That alone probably suggests how much I adore this book. I’ve gifted it to friends, and I honestly think that if everyone read it, the world would be a nicer place.

It tells a story of a somewhat bland and very by-the-book 40-year-old case worker named Linus Baker. His life is rather lonely and uneventful (and he tries not to think about the first and appreciates the latter). One day he gets an assignment to travel to a classified orphanage for magical children on a mysterious island far away from his always gray and rainy city. And there… well, all sorts of mayhem and magic ensues.

In its vibe, the book is in dire opposition to the one in the second place (the Six of Crows duology). It’s funny, sweet, light, and hopeful. The main message is that of kindness and how it’s our differences that make life fun. It’s also about prejudice and activism with a wish to make the world safer for the marginalized.

Genre-wise, it is mainly fantasy, with some touches of slow-burn romance that is, however, almost secondary to the main topic of getting comfortable with who you are and finding a family that will love you for exactly that. I always get a bit cheesy when describing this book because of everything it means to me, but I promise it is not cheesy. From the get-go to the end, I was laughing out loud and rooting for the meticulous, rigid guy with a taste for 50s music, his grumpy cat, and all the lovely, lively, messy island inhabitants.

A random quote:

 “I have no idea what’s going on,” he said. “I’m not even sure if I’m here.”

“Yes,” Ms. Bubblegum said sympathetically. “Sounds like quite the existential crisis. Perhaps consider having it somewhere else.”

This ends the series of my Top 5 books that I read and/or reread and loved as an adult. As you can see, it’s all fantasy, which bothers me a bit – I read much more than that. But fantasy is my heart’s genre, so you can take it as a Top 5 fantasy book by someone who reads a lot of it. To offer more variation, though, I’ll follow up with some honorable non-fantasy mentions next time. Thanks for hanging along, and see you then!