Island Booksellers offers wide-selection of books for adults and children on St. Thomas

ST. THOMAS — Book lovers across the island won’t need to shop online this year, as Island Booksellers is now open and offers a wide selection of books for all ages.

Claire Starkey and her husband Tom Klotzbach, both long-time St. Thomas residents, opened the bookstore, located in Buccaneer Mall next to the V.I. Children’s Museum, on Dec. 7. “We all love books, the whole family, the whole extended family, loves bookstores,” Starkey told The Daily News. While the couple is new to the book and retail business, they have been long-time business partners.

Starkey and Klotzbach owned Fintrac, an international agricultural consulting firm that worked with 2 million farmers across Africa, Asia, the Caribbean and Latin America. Starkey said 10 million people were more food secure as a result of higher yields from farms they assisted. “We were really honored to be working in that space, but after 35 years we decided it was time for other people to innovate and create, so we retired,” she explained. The couple enjoyed their retirement for a short period, traveling and spending time with their 3-year-old grandchild, but Klotzbach had always dreamed of having a bookstore.