The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot

Books | Fiction / General

4.1

(293)

Marianne Cronin

An extraordinary friendship. A lifetime of stories. Their last one begins here. 'Full of wisdom and kindness. It is just the kind of book I adore' JOANNA CANNON 'Heartwarming, remarkable stories' BBC BOOKS FOR 2021 _______________________________________ Life is short. No-one knows that better than seventeen-year-old Lenni living on the terminal ward. But as she is about to learn, it's not only what you make of life that matters, but who you share it with. Dodging doctor's orders, she joins an art class where she bumps into fellow patient Margot, a rebel-hearted eight-three-year-old from the next ward. Their bond is instant as they realize that together they have lived an astonishing one hundred years. To celebrate their shared century, they decide to paint their life stories- of growing old and staying young, of giving joy, of receiving kindness, of losing love, of finding the person who is everything. As their extraordinary friendship deepens, it becomes vividly clear that life is not done with Lenni and Margot yet. Fiercely alive, disarmingly funny and brimming with tenderness, THE ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF LENNI AND MARGOT unwraps the extraordinary gift of life even when it is about to be taken away, and revels in our infinite capacity for friendship and love when we need them most. ---------------------------------------------'Emotional, involving, witty and sad. Everyone is going to love LENNI AND MARGOT' JILL MANSELL 'Lenni and Margot are two of the most wonderful, warm, witty and wise heroines I've ever met. Beautiful and glorious' CLARE POOLEY, author of The Authtenticity Project 'Such a delight! I fell head over heels for Lenni and Margot, their wit and vibrancy and marvellous outlooks on life. An utter joy' ABBIE GREAVES

Buy now:

More Details:

Author

Marianne Cronin

Pages

392

Publisher

Transworld Publishers Limited

Published Date

2021-02

ISBN

0857527207 9780857527202

Community ReviewsSee all

"I finished the book and then marinated on it for a while before writing this review because I wanted to be fair. I was expecting a tear jerker like Tbe Fault in Our Stars but this book doesn’t reach that level. I get that the young girl was trying to live vicariously through the older lady because she knows she would never reach that age, but the friendship seemed a bit forced into the storyline. I think my biggest problem with the book is how the author has two main characters “set their families” free before they die. I understand that Margot’s husband was loosing his memory and how he wasn’t actually the love of her life, but I could not imagine even leaving a good friend alone for their last few days, little lone a spouse. The hardest to understand is how Lenni, a 16 year old girl, also tells her parents to not be sad and watch her die, so they leave her alone in a hospital for a whole year. Her father, who supposedly loves her, gets married and has a new baby and lives out of the country, while she is all alone far away and suffering. How is this love?!? What parent would honor that request from their teenager? It just seems a little crazy, and extremely unforgivable if a child was left alone that long in a hospital. If this was real life, we wouldn’t be talking about the beauty of the friendship made in the last few months of her life, but putting her parents in jail. For these reasons, I cannot say this is a beautiful story."

Sheli Wilburn

"I struggled in the beginning with this book. Lenni was written to seem MUCH younger than she was, in my opinion. I eventually fell in love with Lenni and Margot and their friendship and the stories of their lives they shared with each other. Even thought I knew it was coming, I still cried at the end. Definitely recommend this book. "

Annie Esterkamp

"This is my favorite book of all time. I have thought about it once a week at least since I’ve finished it. I’m not typically one to recommend books to people because I know people have different tastes, but I basically forced my mom to read this book and now we’re both obsessed. Can’t recommend this enough."

awesome_user_610722

"So heartwarming!!! The only book that has managed flashbacks that don’t make me want to skip the chapter."

Maya Tran

"Good read. Slow at times but good character development. In my opinion, better for older people. Not a lot of wild, unexpected scenes. I would recommend to my Mom. Get a few Kleenex’s ready! "

C B

Chris Brown

"I laughed I cried, I felt feelings I hate feeling. My goodness LENNI! This was a beautiful journey of life and death and everything in between. Arriving at a terminal we always dread but know we can’t avoid, Lenni takes us on the journey of her short life, and the adventures she encounters in the way, present and past. She learned to love unconditionally, sacrifice in order to save others pain, she found her other half in Margot, and empowered her to remember her life was beautiful. She creates a legacy of immense love, or chaos and commotion that only a teenager in a terminal ward can. I will take this book with me forever, and I’m trying really hard to not cry at this Barnes and Noble, but man Marianne Cronin! Ugh, if you want to cry happy heartfelt tears to clear out the ducts and feel something in this bleak world we live in? This is it, happy reading? Bring some tissues. "

Soni C.

"One of the best books I’ve ever read. It’s a story about unconventional friendships and what love looks like when it crosses time, status and age. It has multiple stories within the plot and makes you remember what life is about. "