DISCLOSURE: Thank you to Random House UK, Transworld Publishers, Doubleday, via Netgalley for providing a digital ARC of The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot for review. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions.

Have you ever wanted to begin a book over again right after you finished it? That's me with this book...

Select a format:

Life is short - no one knows that better than 17 year-old Lenni Petterssen. On the Terminal ward, the nurses are offering their condolences already, but Lenni still has plenty of living to do. 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.

The chapters alternate between the two women. Most cover a slice or slices of one of their lives from the past, each of which is inspiration for a painting. Other chapters take place in present time. For reasons you will find out, neither Lenni nor Margot has a close family member nearby. They just have each other. Then there are New Nurse, Father Arthur, Pippa the art facilitator, and Paul the Porter. All these people eventually become a part of the makeshift family as well.There is nothing new or exciting about her days, so she decides to go to the hospital chapel, not because she is religious, but because she can. Reverend Author said he was better with ‘what’, ‘who’ , and ‘how’ questions, more than ‘why’ questions. Doubleday said: “ The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margottells the story of a friendship between two extraordinary women, one young and one old, both terminally ill, who meet unexpectedly in art class. As their unlikely friendship blossoms, Lenni and Margot realise that between them they have lived for 100 years. With the help of Lenni’s cherry-haired nurse and gentle Father Arthur, the two friends determine to leave something everlasting behind: one hundred paintings showcasing their one hundred years. As they work together in the art room and from their hospital beds, Lenni and Margot share, and paint, the stories of the lives that led them to their serendipitous meeting.

Fiercely alive, disarmingly funny and brimming with tenderness, THE ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF LENNI AND MARGOT unwraps the extraordinary gift of life, and revels in our infinite capacity for friendship and love when we need them most. There were many times that I laughed out loud and times when I felt really sad. I felt such anger also that Lenni, this lovely, witty, wonderful young woman got so few years to live. I was so glad that her last months were lived as well as they could be, surrounded by new friends and loved by many! Ok…. one more thing: and not the books fault — but I’ve read a few books recently that I soooo passionately loved, [“The Paper Palace”, and a few others], that I find myself still wishing for that ‘gut-exciting’ rush-read. When Lenni meets Margot, their connection is immediate, unique, and their new and unlikely friendship is born. During art class Lenni and Margo discover their combined age's equal one-hundred-years. They decide to celebrate their discovery by painting a picture for each year they have lived.Charged with light and colour. Gloriously original and full of wisdom, humour, and hope. It made me think and care and laugh and cry. One of my all-time favourite books' HAZEL PRIOR, author of Away with the Penguins But there were two numbers in front of me that mattered, and would matter for the rest of my numbered days. Instead of troubling herself and others with a question she couldn’t answer, she embraced her gift for painting and… celebrated the rest of her life exploring that talent…