While there are moments of extreme sorrow , loss and grief, the beautiful moments of camaraderie and friendship will have you smiling through your tears. With a wonderful cast of characters , thought provoking dialogue and an engaging narrative, The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot by Marianne Cronin is a moving and emotional story that will stay with me for a long time. The author’s skillful storytelling turns what could have been a morbid tale of imminent death into a heart touching celebration of life with wit, wisdom and humor. What moments would you paint from your life, excluding marriages, births, and deaths? Are there any simple, everyday moments that you would describe for Lenni? cherry red hair, which clashed with her blue uniform like there was no tomorrow. She’d only been on the May Ward a matter of days and she was nervous, especially around the airport children … The book contain stories both by Lenni and Margot about their lives which they tell each other. Both have a positive outlook despite being terminal. Lenni shares her quirky views on people and life. Her debut novel 'The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot' took seven years to write. It is to be published in over twenty languages and is being adapted into a feature film by a major Hollywood studio.

This is the touching and moving story of seventeen year old Lenni Petterson who is on May Ward of Glasgow Princess Royal Hospital and eighty three year old Margot who is awaiting heart surgery. Lenni is in the ‘terminal lounge’ with a ‘life limiting’ illness and so to commemorate key moments in their lives they set out to create 100 hundred paintings in the art room run by the lovely Pippa. Through the evolution of the paintings we learn the story of their lives. Life is short - no one knows that better than 17 year-old Lenni Petterssen. On the Terminal ward, the nurses are offering their condolences already, but Lenni still has plenty of living to do. I have to drag myself out of there and remember that that is not the type of terminal meant for me.

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She stopped. She seemed so small that I wanted to scoop her up and lay her down in a pile of soft toys and cushions, and cover her in a warm blanket.” This was a beautifully-written inspiring story of hope, destiny, wisdom and spiritual awareness, The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot focused on living life to the fullest, no matter how much time you have left. It was about making peace with your own mortality, finding a place where you belong, and that family is not always blood-related. Sharing and preserving their best and worst memories helped Lenni and Margot define what moments of their lives they truly cherished, and reconcile with those that were painful.

The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot is a lovely novel and really helps us look at our lives from the outside in. I thought of what my own 42 paintings would look like, and what I want my remaining paintings to be. Numbers don’t mean a lot to me. I don’t care about long division or percentages. I don’t know my height or my weight and I can’t remember my dad’s phone number, though I know I used to know it. I prefer words. Delicious, glorious words. A book begging to be read on the beach, with the sun warming the sand and salt in the air: pure escapism.Lenni, a terminally ill teenage girl, befriends an elderly woman (Margot) in an art class at the hospital where they both are residing. Lenni is looking for somewhere to fit in, in this odd situation, and decides the class for the older folks is where she feels best, rather than the groups designed for those of her own age. A charming, fiercely alive and disarmingly funny debut novel in the vein of John Green, Rachel Joyce, and Jojo Moyes—a brave testament to the power of living each day to the fullest, a tribute to the stories that we live, and a reminder of our unlimited capacity for friendship and love. I was astonished to learn that this book was written by a debut author. Marianne Cronin admits herself it took her six years to complete this novel and it was wholeheartedly worth the wait. Lenni and Margot will be forever etched on my memory and on learning that this book is being adapted into a movie by a top Hollywood studio, I wait with bated breath for this touching tale to come to life on the big screen. Poor, lovely Father Arthur. He is a delight. Then there is The Temp. The story is told from Lenni’s point of view, except she tells us about The Temp from the third person point of view, and for some reason, it works.

This is a book where the two main characters are both terminally ill. They will both die. You’ll fall in love with them anyway. I’m typing this review with swollen eyes, as I finished this book last night before bed. Even though it was a tearjerker, I’d read it again. The “assignment” for the project is to paint a memory, through which we learn the brief tale of Lenni’s life, along with the complicated, and fascinating, past of our elderly heroine Margot. Lenni, of course, as we easily predict she will, dies before the end of the novel. Cronin paints pictures with her words and through Lenni’s situation and encounters colours the story with wit and wisdom, with laugh-out-loud moments and weep-into-your-tissue moments too. As their friendship deepens, it becomes vividly clear that life is not done with Lenni and Margot yet.What do you think happens to Margot after the end of the book? Do you think she makes it to Vietnam to see Meena again?

I’m thankful for my early reviewer friends who loved this book, as it wasn’t really on my radar. Meaningful and wonderfully written books aren’t easy to find!! This debut novel by Ms.Cronin is extraordinary. There is more to this story, but essentially, this is a lovely debut that is about living life fully, despite knowing that this life is finite. Filled with the joys of life, of love, it is an ode to living life fully, as joyfully as possible, celebrating life on your own terms. The paintings of Lenni and Margot are accompanied by stories that provide snapshots of their lives. From Lenni we learn of her first and only kiss, her alcoholic mother, and the father she sends away. We learn of Margot's marriage, and her husband's abandonment of her following the death of their infant son; of Meena, the woman who saved her; of Humphrey who fostered Margot's love of the stars and which she passes on to Lenni. One of the most beautiful moments in this book for me was when Margot takes Lenni outside the hospital to look at the stars:They’ve started to say “life-limiting” instead now. “Children and young people with life-limiting conditions . . .” Captivated by Margot’s long and storied life, Lenni concocts a creative scheme. They will make paintings of pivotal moments from their lives, one for each of their combined 100 years, as a way to chronicle their stories and transport themselves away from the reality of hospital beds and surgeries. As they paint, their creative body of work begins to surprise them, as well as their fellow artist patients and excited art teacher, Pippa. With the encouragement of hospital chaplain Father Arthur and a favorite nurse, Lenni and Margot press on through memories both painful and breathtaking. MY THOUGHTS: "Though my soul may set in darkness, it will rise in perfect light; I have loved the stars too fondly to be fearful of the night.” - Sarah Williams, The Old Astronomer to his Pupil. To celebrate their shared century, they decide to paint their life stories: of growing old and staying young, of giving joy, of receiving kindness, of losing love, of finding the person who is everything. Seventeen-year-old Lenni Petterson lives in the Glasgow Princess Royal Hospital. She has tons yet to discover, philosophical questions to ask, and is living with terminal cancer. Lenni is full of life, confident and curious!