A review by okevamae
The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot by Marianne Cronin

5.0

17-year-old Lenni is bright, inquisitive, and has an interesting way of looking at the world. She wants to enjoy every minute of life, because she knows her days are numbered – she resides at a hospital in Glasgow, on the ward for terminally ill youth. A chance encounter leads her to forming a friendship with 83-year-old Margot, another patient in the hospital. The book is told in a series of short vignettes, taking place both in the hospital and in scenes from Lenni and Margot’s lives, each representing one of the hundred years they have been alive. It’s a story about Margot’s life, and Lenni’s life - and most of all, it’s a book about love in all its many forms.

The writing is just gorgeous, and the characters are vivid and loveable. The best, most beautifully crafted part of the book is the relationships between characters – between Lenni and Margot, Lenni and Father Arthur, Lenni and the nurses, Lenni and her father, and in flashback, between Margot and her many lost loves. I love an “unexpected friendship” story, almost as much as I love a “found family” story, and this book has plenty of both. It’s one of those books that manages to be both heartwarming and heartbreaking at the same time. This story is beautiful, and absolutely worth a read.

I received an ARC of this ebook from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.