Eleanor Oliphant has learned how to survive – but not how to live

Eleanor Oliphant leads a simple life. She wears the same clothes to work every day, eats the same meal deal for lunch every day and buys the same two bottles of vodka to drink every weekend.

Eleanor Oliphant is happy. Nothing is missing from her carefully timetabled life. Except, sometimes, everything.

One simple act of kindness is about to shatter the walls Eleanor has built around herself. Now she must learn how to navigate the world that everyone else seems to take for granted – while searching for the courage to face the dark corners she’s avoided all her life.

Change can be good. Change can be bad. But surely any change is better than… fine?

I absolutely adored this book and could not put it down. It is, in short, a beautiful story about a very unconventional, flawed but likable character who, the reader realises very early on, has a terrible past to come to terms with. Honeyman unravels Eleanor’s story slowly and masterfully, surrounding her with a wonderful and engaging supporting cast, and the reader is hooked until the final page. This is a book about loneliness, about trauma, about the walls we build around ourselves to keep ourselves safe. However, it is also a story filled with hope, with love and life, with liberation and second chances.

It is little wonder that this book is a 2017 bestseller. Without hesitation: five stars.

Available at: Amazon