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2019 Longlist

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine

ABOUT
THE BOOK

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?

 

ABOUT
THE AUTHOR Gail
Honeyman

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine is Gail Honeyman’s first novel. It won the Costa First Novel Award 2017, and has been longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction and the Desmond Elliott Prize. As a work in progress, it was shortlisted for the Lucy Cavendish Fiction Prize. Since publication, translation rights have sold to over thirty territories worldwide, Reese Witherspoon has optioned it for film and it was chosen as one of the Observers Debuts of the Year for 2017. Gail was also awarded the Scottish Book Trust’s Next Chapter Award in 2014, and has been longlisted for BBC Radio 4’s Opening Lines and shortlisted for the Bridport Prize. Gail lives in Glasgow.

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine is Gail Honeyman’s first novel. It won the Costa First Novel Award 2017, and has been longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction and the Desmond Elliott Prize. As a work in progress, it was shortlisted for the Lucy Cavendish Fiction Prize. Since publication, translation rights have sold to over thirty territories worldwide, Reese Witherspoon has optioned it for film and it was chosen as one of the Observers Debuts of the Year for 2017. Gail was also awarded the Scottish Book Trust’s Next Chapter Award in 2014, and has been longlisted for BBC Radio 4’s Opening Lines and shortlisted for the Bridport Prize. Gail lives in Glasgow.

NOMINATING LIBRARY COMMENTS

Undoubtedly the favourite book with our readers this year.

In an era of oversharing, living-for-likes, data overload and publicity-as-commodity, it is rather nice to read about a character who goes against the grain, chooses her own route and throws appropriateness out the window. Sometimes going against the grain can put you in isolation. Sometimes we think we’re completely fine with that. It is also nice to see a character, such as Eleanor, find likeminded friends, who change her heart and life in a profound and inspiring way. Eleanor gives us hope. We start to believe that, in a world which is competing for attention, quiet quirkiness can still find hope and redemption. In short; this book is inspiring as heck !

A debut author who has created quite an unconventional main character and tackled questions like loneliness and mental health.

A deceptively easy read that highlights the problem of loneliness with humour and tenderness. A well written and truly uplifting novel.

Quirky, humorous, sad and charming. The main character draws you in.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Date published
01/01/2017
Author
Publisher
HarperCollins Publishers

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