The Reluctant Fortune-Teller

by Keziah Frost

Overview

A retired accountant becomes the town’s fortune-teller in this witty and charming debut

Norbert Zelenka has always lived life on the sidelines. It’s why at seventy-three years old he’s broke and alone except for the company of a Chihuahua. But when “Carlotta’s Club”—three strong-willed seniors with plenty of time on their hands—decide to make Norbert their latest project, he reluctantly agrees to their scheme: establishing himself as the town’s fortune-teller. Soon his life begins changing in unexpected ways.

It turns out that years of observing other people make Norbert an excellent card reader. As Norbert’s lonesome world expands with new friendships and a newfound self-confidence, he finally finds himself in a place where he belongs. But disaster looms on the horizon. When a troubled young woman goes missing after a bad reading, Norbert must find a strength beyond the cards to bring her home safely.

A heartfelt story of coming-of-age late in life, The Reluctant Fortune-Teller is a poignant reminder that we’re never too old to learn new tricks.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780778312819
Publisher:	Park Row Books
Publication date:	03/06/2018
Edition description:	Original
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	5.20(w) x 7.90(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Keziah Frost holds master's degrees in English and counseling. She developed The Reluctant Fortune-Teller while enrolled in the Faber Academy online course. She shares her life with five little dogs, one audacious cat and her encouraging human family. The Reluctant Fortune-Teller is her first novel.

Editorial Reviews

"Charming, warm, and wittily told." -Kirkus Reviews

"Frost's cast of senior citizens shine in her comical debut... The Reluctant Fortune-Teller will charm any reader looking for a sweet, witty, zany read in the foreseeable future." -Booklist

"A warm, charming story you read with a smile." -Catharina Ingelman-Sundberg, #1 bestselling author of The Little Old Lady Who Broke All the Rules

"It's easy to foresee a great future for this delightful debut. Insightful, charming and intriguing, Norbert Z show us that it's never too late to change the cards that life deals us." -Phaedra Patrick, author of The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper

"Through learning to listen to others, Norbert discovers his own intuition-and in doing so, launches himself out of his ordinariness. An extraordinary book by an extraordinary new author." -Benjamin Ludwig, author of Ginny Moon

"Delightful. Norbert Z is warm and real and we rejoice in his growth throughout the story. This is a real comfort read in an uncertain world." -Rhys Bowen, New York Times bestselling author

From the Publisher

2017-12-12
An unassuming older man finds an unexpected new direction for his life in this debut novel.Seventy-three-year-old Norbert Zelenka has been a quiet person his whole life and assumes he'll live out his days thusly in a quiet tourist town in upstate New York. His first surprise, as the novel opens, is that he's caught the attention of Carlotta's Club, a tightknit group of three older women he sees often at The Gibbon Corner Art League and Gallery. More surprising is their suggestion that he become the town fortuneteller. It is such a ridiculous and invasive idea that Norbert would never consider it, not unless he was broke and needed to pay veterinary bills for his miniature Chihuahua and sole companion, which happens to be the situation. The club teaches him everything they know from earlier dabbles in the psychic arts, and Carlotta, their forceful leader, installs him at her niece's floundering cafe. It turns out that Norbert has a knack for the art of card reading or, more accurately, the art of attentive listening and incisive feedback. A lot of the fun of the novel is eavesdropping on his many sessions (which hint that he has real psychic abilities, but keep the jury out on the issue). His success is welcome to all except Carlotta, who had planned to use him more as puppet than protégé. The two butt heads, and Norbert repetitively fears that he has too much responsibility for the lives of others. But this is padding before the book gets to its real question: will Norbert be able to help Carlotta's granddaughter, Summer, who is in a real psychological crisis?Holding more surprise for its characters than its readers, this novel is nonetheless charming, warm, and wittily told.

Kirkus Reviews