Winner of the 2017 Costa First Novel Award (awarded in 2018).
Meet Eleanor Oliphant. She struggles with appropriate social skills and tends to say exactly what she?s thinking. Nothing is missing in her carefully time-tabled life of avoiding social interactions, where weekends are punctuated by frozen pizza, vodka, and phone chats with Mummy.
Then everything changes when Eleanor meets Raymond, the bumbling and deeply unhygienic IT guy from her office. When she and Raymond together save Sammy, an elderly gentleman who has fallen on the sidewalk, the three become the kinds of friends who rescue one another from the lives of isolation they have each been living--and it is Raymond?s big heart that will ultimately help Eleanor find the way to repair her own profoundly damaged one.
Staff Choice: Shirley
Actually, this is a horrible story. But the way this story is composed is really good. You get to know Eleanor, the main character, and although she is at times very odd, you do not think too much about it. Then the story slowly evolves and you finally find out what happened to her. You understand why she is weird and acting strangely and the puzzle is complete. Very nicely done, I had to shed a tear at this, in its core, very cruel story.
Staff Choice: Chiara
Eleanor Oliphant is COMPLETELY FINE: she works 9 to 5 in an office until Friday, when she can finally buy her beloved bottle of vodka and enjoy a weekend by herself. Apart from the colleagues, she is alone most of the time. Except from the weekly phone call from the mysterious 'Mom', she doesn't feel the urge to share her life with anyone else. But everyone deserves to be loved, understood and taken care of. She will only realize it at the end, when she can finally share with the world her traumatic past, and realize that she actually has people around her who really care for her. Of this book, I especially loved how the main character was portrayed and I am looking forward to reading more from Gail Honeyman!