Looking For Eliza
As seen:
By Leaf Arbuthnot
avg rating
3 reviews
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‘Clever, warm and funny’ – ADAM KAY, bestselling author of This is Going to Hurt
Beautifully rendered, thoughtful and original’ – Pandora Sykes
‘A marvellous read’ – Ruth Hogan
Ada is a widowed writer, navigating loneliness in Oxford after the death of her husband.
She has no children. No grandchildren. She fears she is becoming peripheral, another invisible woman. Eliza is a student at the university. She finds it difficult to form meaningful relationships after the estrangement of her mother and breakup with her girlfriend. After meeting through Ada’s new venture, ‘Rent-a-Gran’, and bonding over Lapsang Souchong tea and Primo Levi, they begin to find what they’re looking for in each other.
But can they cast off their isolation for good?An exquisite story of connection and loss, and how a person can change another person’s life.
Full of heartache yet joyful and life-affirming, this is for fans of Normal People, Expectation and Sarah Winman’s Tin Man.
’Leaf’s writing is warm and lyrically funny – she has an eye for details both sublime and ridiculous.Looking for Eliza is an intelligent and big-hearted read with the human condition at its core.’ – Harriet Walker, The Times
Reviews
Enjoyable reading.
Good descriptions of scenes and nature which affected my senses and made me think I was there.
Insights in relationships between different age groups and genders, heart rendering views on widowhood and loneliness.
I would recommend this book.
What do you do when you have no family and only memories and you want a little connection with the world? Why, you start up a 'rent a gran' business of course! But what if that isn't quite what you're looking for? Then you make friends with the student who lives over the road. A story of the friendship of two opposites and the twists and turns along their way.
A lovely book about loneliness and isolation whilst the city continues to buzz around you. The gradual building of the relationship between Ada and her neighbour is beautiful. Wonderful characterisation with gentle, lilting prose. A must read.
