The one hundred years of Lenni and Margot: a novel

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“A beautiful debut, funny, tender, and animated by a willingness to confront life’s obstacles and find a way to survive. . . . It celebrates friendship, finds meaning in difficulty and lets the reader explore dark places while always allowing for the possibility of light. Lenni and Margot are fine companions for all our springtime journeys.”—Harper’s Bazaar, UK 

A charming, fiercely alive and disarmingly funny debut novel in the vein of John Green, Rachel Joyce, and Jojo Moyes—a brave testament to the power of living each day to the fullest, a tribute to the stories that we live, and a reminder of our unlimited capacity for friendship and love.

An extraordinary friendship. A lifetime of stories. 

Seventeen-year-old Lenni Pettersson lives on the Terminal Ward at the Glasgow Princess Royal Hospital. Though the teenager has been told she’s dying, she still has plenty of living to do. Joining the hospital’s arts and crafts class, she meets the magnificent Margot, an 83-year-old, purple-pajama-wearing, fruitcake-eating rebel, who transforms Lenni in ways she never imagined.

As their friendship blooms, a world of stories opens for these unlikely companions who, between them, have been alive for one hundred years. Though their days are dwindling, both are determined to leave their mark on the world. With the help of Lenni’s doting palliative care nurse and Father Arthur, the hospital’s patient chaplain, Lenni and Margot devise a plan to create one hundred paintings showcasing the stories of the century they have lived—stories of love and loss, of courage and kindness, of unexpected tenderness and pure joy.

Though the end is near, life isn’t quite done with these unforgettable women just yet.

Delightfully funny and bittersweet, heartbreaking yet ultimately uplifting, The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot reminds us of the preciousness of life as it considers the legacy we choose to leave, how we influence the lives of others even after we’re gone, and the wonder of a friendship that transcends time.

From the beautiful cover to the heart-warming story, The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot is a book that will touch your soul and make you appreciate the beauty of life. This literary fiction novel is one of the best books of all time, and it's perfect for anyone who loves novels about love, grief, and friendship.

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9780063092761
9780063017504
9780063017528
006309276
9780063017511
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Similar Titles From NoveList

NoveList provides detailed suggestions for titles you might like if you enjoyed this book. Suggestions are based on recommendations from librarians and other contributors.
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Both quirky and moving books feature octogenarians who learn to face mortality with grace after befriending a young girl, though the girl is the protagonist in Lenni and Margot whereas the older woman is in Eudora Honeysett. -- CJ Connor
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Published Reviews

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.
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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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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.

(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
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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

(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
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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.
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Booklist Reviews

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. Copyright 2021 Booklist Reviews.

Copyright 2021 Booklist Reviews.
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Library Journal Reviews

In this new addition to the Regency-set "Westcott" series, recently widowed Lydia Tavernor wants Someone To Cherish but would rather have a lover than a husband after the numbing servitude of marriage to Rev. Isaiah Tavernor. In Brenner's Blush, college senior Sadie Bailey discovers that straitlaced Grandma Vivian once ran a book club devoted to scandalous women's fiction. To find respite from griefover her grandfather's death, Marisa Rosso travels to a seaside Cornish village, where she helps locals save their beloved bakery (well known to Colgan's fans) in Sunrise by the Sea (100,000-copy paperback and 30,000-copy hardcover first printing). On the Terminal Ward at the Glasgow Princess Royal Hospital, life-hungry 17-year-old Lenni joins forces with 83-year-old rebel Margot in debuter Cronin's The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot (150,000-copy paperback and 25,000-copy hardcover first printing). With The Paper Palace, Heller, HBO head of drama, turns in a first novel about a woman who makes a momentous and long-overdue decision one bright Cape Cod morning. Diagnosed with a terminal illness, newly married Lauren decides to leave her husband 12 letters to guide him through the first year without her in Higgins's Pack Up the Moon. Killed in a hit-and-run in Nantucket, novelist Vivi is given heavenly permission to spend a year watching over her children, her best friend, and her ex-husband in Hilderbrand's Golden Girl (750,000-copy first printing). In Phillips's When Stars Collide, opera diva Olivia Shore and Thaddeus Walker Bowman Owens, backup quarterback for the Chicago Stars, are paired on a nationwide tour promoting a luxury watch brand with tumultuous results (150,000-copy first printing). Debuter Ray's The Missing Treasures of Amy Ashton features a once-aspiring artist now running from a tragedy in her life by simply collecting beautiful objects—until the collection-conscious little boy whose family moves in next door makes her rethink things (100,000-copy first printing).

Copyright 2020 Library Journal.

Copyright 2020 Library Journal.
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Library Journal Reviews

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

Copyright 2021 Library Journal.

Copyright 2021 Library Journal.
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Publishers Weekly Reviews

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)

Copyright 2021 Publishers Weekly.

Copyright 2021 Publishers Weekly.
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School Library Journal Reviews

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.

Copyright 2021 School Library Journal.

Copyright 2021 School Library Journal.
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