#BlogTourReview : The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot by Marianne Cronin

It feels like it’s been a long time coming but I am finally able to to share my blog tour review for the wonderful The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot, the debut novel (Yes!!! Debut!!!) by Marianne Cronin. Huge thanks to Alison Barrow for my gifted copy and Anne Cater for my blog tour invite.

Lenni Pettersson is 17 years old. Margot Macrae is 83. Put them together and they have lived for a hundred years. Both are reaching the end of their lives, but neither of them are done with living quite yet.

In the newly built hospital Art Room the two meet, kindred souls, both looking at life in a different and uplifting way, both ready to face what ever remains to them head on. And so begins as beautiful friendship as they set out together to tell the story of their hundred years, a project painted in words and pictures and wrapped up with enduring love.

I read Lenni and Margot’s story many months ago. I read it a time, a time that seems to be persisting still, when the world needed hope, light and understanding. I found all of these rare and elusive qualities in the pages of this book.

The relationship between Margot and Lenni is the best that people can be. An acceptance that age, experience and circumstances don’t need to be the boundaries we all perceive them to be. That true wisdom and kindness can be found at any age and is always best when it is shared around. It is a celebration of both age and youth, a symbiotic relationship of support and love.

Through the stories these characters share with the reader and each other, a bond of understanding and knowledge. This book is a celebration of life long learning and of squeezing every last drop out of what has gone before and what is yet to come.

Most of the story takes place physically with the hospital, and the sense of place the author has created here is spot on. For anyone who has ever spend a few days or longer in a hospital will instantly recognise the vibe! The descriptions of the unique hospital community, the way time moves in it’s own strange and inexplicable way, the rules and hierarchies and all the stories found within it.

Through Lenni and Margot’s creations they escape the confines of the ward. Because when when you can’t step outside, you travel within stories, within pictures and memories. At a time of lockdown this book brings alive the power of imagination and artistic communication.

This is the story of not one but two special lives, sympathetic and beautifully told.A story alive with it’s share of sorrow and joy, where strong emotions are continually welcomed and embraced

Lenni and Margot will make you roar with laughter and make you weep with empathy, but never will they let you feel regret. In the darkest of times this story is a light shining gently on the world.

Simply unforgettable!

Rachel x

And there is more…

For more reviews and reactions to this beautiful book, check out the rest of the blog tour below…