DownloadThe Portobello Bookshop Gift Guide 2024

Three Things About Elsie

Joanna Cannon author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:HarperCollins Publishers

Published:26th Jul '18

Should be back in stock very soon

Three Things About Elsie cover

The Sunday Times bestseller longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction

The Sunday Times Bestseller

‘Lovely, lovely, lovely… Sue Townsend meets Kate Atkinson meets Nina Stibbe’ MARIAN KEYES

‘Powerful and profound’ Guardian

‘Another sure-fire hit’ Daily Mail

‘Funny, melancholy, acutely observant’ Sunday Express

‘Cannon is so attuned to other people’s stories… a chronicler both of the human condition and the quotidian details which speak to who we are’ Guardian

84-year-old Florence has fallen in her flat at Cherry Tree Home for the Elderly. As she waits to be rescued, she considers the charming new resident who looks exactly like a man she once knew – a man who died sixty years ago. His arrival has stirred distant memories she and Elsie thought they’d laid to rest. Lying prone in the front room, Florence wonders if a terrible secret from her past is about to come to light …

Praise for Three Things About Elsie:

‘Compassionate, thoughtful and tender, it is a novel exploring the pain of nostalgia and personal truths so painful we hide them even from ourselves’ HANNAH BECKERMAN, Observer

‘A tale of ordinary lives and buried secrets … a well-written, entertaining, effortless read with some arresting insights’ Mail on Sunday

‘Charming, wise and profoundly human. I lived every page of this book’ ERIN KELLY

‘Powerful and profound’ Guardian

‘Irresistibly good-hearted … captivating’ Telegraph

‘Another sure-fire hit for Cannon … abounds with Alan Bennett-esque humour, as well as heart-wrenching sadness’ Daily Mail

‘Emotional, sweet, funny, hauntingly sad and poignant. I loved it’ DJ Sara Cox, Stella

‘Funny, melancholy, acutely observant … your heart will finally crack in two on the last page’ Sunday Express

‘A warm, wise novel – brilliantly entertaining – that also manages to be a timely and profound take on ageing. I loved it’ KATE HAMER

‘Light yet heartbreaking, a joy to read’ i Newspaper

‘Funny, touching, and peppered with astute observations … a future classic’ CLARE MACKINTOSH, author of I Let You Go

‘[Cannon] conveys the legion indignities of overlooked old age with touching perception’ Sunday Times Culture

‘A moving, bittersweet story’ Good Housekeeping

‘Cannon is on her way to becoming a national treasure – no one does quirky, funny and soul-searing the way she does’ Emerald Street

‘Poignant, witty and original’ Woman & Home

‘More brilliant, generous storytelling… (a) funny, melancholic tale’ Psychologies

ISBN: 9780008196943

Dimensions: 198mm x 129mm x 29mm

Weight: 330g

496 pages