Review by Booklist Review
When a novel about death provides many occasions for laughing out loud, you know that the author has achieved something special. First-time British novelist Cronin creates a beautiful friendship between terminally ill, 17-year-old Lenni Pettersson and colorful, 83-year-old Margot Macrame which begins when they meet under extraordinary circumstances at a Glasgow hospital. Lenni's realization that their ages add up to 100 leads to a joint art project in which they each create a painting for every year of their lives, making use of the hospital's newly established art room. As Margot shares her stories, Lenni gets to experience the ups-and-downs, lost loves, and warm connections that mark a well-lived life. Lenni's visits with Father Arthur in the nearly always empty hospital chapel as she seeks answers to difficult questions with remarkable candor showcase Cronin's strong talent for characterization and humor. Cronin has struck just the right balance between sensitivity and sentimentality, making her one of those admirable writers who does exceptionally fine work both celebrating life and addressing death. A Hollywood film adaptation is underway.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Cronin's touching debut is a joyous celebration of friendship, love, and life. Lenni Pettersson, 17, is dying from an unspecified illness. During her stay as a patient at Glasgow Princess Royal Hospital, she befriends Margot Macrae, an 83-year-old dying of heart disease. After an art therapist named Pippa shows Lenni how to paint, an idea slips into her mind "like a silverfish": she suggests that she and Margot make 100 paintings illustrating their cumulative years of life. Meanwhile, Margot's life story gradually emerges in chapters from her point of view. She has been in love with a woman named Meena since before she met her husband, who has since died, and decides that if her surgery goes well she will meet Meena in Vietnam and accept her marriage proposal. While the narrative voice sometimes feels a bit too childlike for a 17-year-old, the story offers plenty of uplifting wisdom (Pippa reminds Lenni and Margot they are "living," not "dying"). Fans of life-affirming tearjerkers will be touched. Agent: Alexandra Machinist, ICM Partners. (June)
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Review by Library Journal Review
DEBUT Lenni, 17, is a patient at the Glasgow Princess Royal Hospital. She is utterly, irresistibly, forthrightly charming. She's also dying. Long separated from her mother, and unable to bear her father's crushing grief, Lenni mercifully sends him away to find comfort with his Polish girlfriend. Lenni expands her shrinking world by visiting the chapel to discuss religion with the soon-to-be-retired hospital chaplain, and by regularly attending the hospital's art classes, where she meets 83-year-old Margot, who is also dying. The two become quick friends, and when Lenni realizes their ages add up to 100, she devises a project where they tell the stories of their lives in 100 drawings. Moving back and forth in time, the narrative beautifully renders Margot's much-longer life in paintings of a lost baby, a missing husband, a complicated lifelong friendship with a woman she loves, and astronomy. Holding all the pieces together are Lenni's exquisite honesty, humor, and curiosity at the life she won't live. VERDICT Readers will know by page two that sharp-tongued, funny, brave Lenni will break their heart, and that they'll be all in for the ride. Rich for its cast of characters unique in their messiness, humanity, and kindness, debut author Cronin's masterpiece won't let go, long after the last page.--Beth Andersen, formerly with Ann Arbor Dist. Lib., MI
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Review by School Library Journal Review
Seventeen-year-old Lenni lives in the section of the Glasgow hospital for those who are terminally ill. She is alone because her mother returned to Sweden and Lenni told her father to follow a new girlfriend to Poland since his visits depressed her. She creates her own family with new friends. Father Arthur, the hospital chaplain, accepts her wit and disbelief when they speak. Lenni does not enjoy the company of other teens and joins an art session for those over 80, where she and 83-year-old Margot become close. The structure of the novel is clever as Lenni and Margot paint the story of their combined 100 years. The bittersweet story relates Margot's tragedies and romances while Lenni provides humorous dialogue. Teens will love the tearjerker ending. VERDICT Purchase for all collections serving teens.--Karlan Sick, formerly at New York P.L.
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
Seventeen-year-old Lenni Pettersson is terminally ill, a long-term, motherless patient rarely visited by her father. But in her final months, she gathers a new family of quirky characters who inhabit Glasgow Princess Royal Hospital. As the days drift by on May Ward (the sad name for the hospital wing housing the medically hopeless cases), Lenni seeks something to fill her time. One day, she decides to visit the chapel even though she is not particularly spiritual and her religious training is haphazard at best--biblical parables have gotten tangled up with fairy tales and worries about homelessness. Yet there she meets Father Arthur, her first soul mate. Just months away from retirement, the priest finds in Lenni a witty, playful friend. She's just as likely to good-naturedly mock his vestments as to ask him why she is dying. Meanwhile, elsewhere in the hospital, a young office temp is trying to use her art degree to snag a full-time job. Although her work backfires a bit when she loses her job to a proper teacher, the art therapy program she creates introduces Lenni to Margot. An 83-year-old woman awaiting her own death, Margot instantly clicks with Lenni. Recognizing that their ages add up to 100, Lenni and Margot embark on a massive project: 100 works of art to represent their entire century of life. Well, it's mostly Margot's art, because she's a wonderful artist, and Lenni's stories, because she's a terrible artist. Threading together these two lives, Cronin not only embellishes Lenni's brief sojourn with Margot's dramatic adventures, but also nimbly avoids drifting into sentimental clichés. So as Lenni's health declines, Margot's stories chase her true love through a broken marriage, criminal escapades, unexpected liaisons, and even a lost chicken story. A whimsical, joyous portrait of the ends of things. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
