Sixty-nine year old Arthur Pepper has lived a very simple life working as a locksmith in a small town outside of York, England. He was married to the love of his life; they had two children.
When the book opens we encounter Arthur following a very dreary routine eating the same breakfast and wearing the same type of clothing he has always worn. This is a day he has been dreading because it is the one-year anniversary of the death of his wife Miriam. He decides that it is time to empty Miriam’s closet and send her clothes to a charitable organization. As he goes through each item deciding what to donate and what to discard, he finds, stuffed in the toe of a pair of boots, a jewelry box containing a charm bracelet. He doesn’t believe that he has ever seen the bracelet before; it doesn’t even seem like the kind of jewelry his wife would have worn. With the discovery of this bracelet, however, Arthur’s life, his memories, and his future will change forever.
As Arthur embarks on a quest to determine what each of the charms on the bracelet meant to his wife, he learns about her secret life, but even more important, he learns about himself. He will travel near and far, encounter a tiger, eccentric people from Miriam’s past, get mugged in London, pose nude for young artists, and visit India.
First-time novelist Phaedra Patrick has written a charming book filled with colorful characters who help Arthur realize who he really is. If you enjoyed “The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry” and “The Little Paris Bookshop,” you will definitely love Arthur Pepper and his amazing journey
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