The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot
Lenni is 17 and she is dying. She lives on the terminal ward in a hospital in Glasgow, but she is determined to eke life of the time she has left, in the place she is. When she joins the hospital’s arts and crafts class, she meets Margot. Together, they’ve lived for 100 years, and they decide to embark on a project to create 100 paintings to celebrate their century of life.
I loved Lenni’s thoughtful determination, Margot’s vibrant personality, and how their friendship in the present grows as they reflect on their pasts. Bittersweet and wonderfully narrated.
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Publisher’s Description
An extraordinary friendship. A lifetime of stories.
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.
As their friendship blooms, a world of stories opens for these unlikely companions who, between them, have been alive for one hundred years. Though their days are dwindling, both are determined to leave their mark on the world. With the help of Lenni’s doting palliative care nurse and Father Arthur, the hospital’s patient chaplain, Lenni and Margot devise a plan to create one hundred paintings showcasing the stories of the century they have lived—stories of love and loss, of courage and kindness, of unexpected tenderness and pure joy.
Though the end is near, life isn’t quite done with these unforgettable women just yet.
Delightfully funny and bittersweet, heartbreaking yet ultimately uplifting, The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot reminds us of the preciousness of life as it considers the legacy we choose to leave, how we influence the lives of others even after we’re gone, and the wonder of a friendship that transcends time.