The Used World Emporium is the sprawling antique store where Hazel, Claudia, and Rebekah pass their days surrounded by dusty furniture, cast-off clothes, and ancient housewares. But with the unexpected arrival of two babies—and the unfolding of not one but three love stories, each spanning generations—their formerly used world becomes new again. Heartrending, hilarious, and inspiring by turn, The Used World is the book that Kimmel's loyal fans have been waiting for—and it is certain to win her legions of new ones.
Kimmel uses Hazel Hunnicut's "Used World Emporium," a vast empire of secondhand books, furniture, and bric-a-brac, as the setting and central symbol for her most recent novel. She weaves it through the lives of her three main characters. While six-foot-five-inch Claudia and delicate, red-haired Rebekah both work there, Hazel is the owner and a kind of impresario, directing the sometimes poignant, sometimes humorous show. All three, though, carry heartbreaking pasts, used worlds of their own that Hazel helps transform into a richer present. Narrator C.J. Critt's reading is at once energetic and personal. She effortlessly draws a wide range of characters out of her deep, even gravelly, voice. The effect is soft and delicately intimate, perfect for the harsh discoveries the reader is to make. P.E.F. (c) AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine
About the Author
Haven Kimmel was born and raised in Indiana, the locus of her bestselling memoir, A Girl Named Zippy: Growing up Small in Mooreland, Indiana. She has also written two previous novels The Solace of Leaving Early and Something Rising (Light and Swift), as well as the memoir She Got Up Off the Couch.
