Waiting is what 89-year old Marvellous spends the year 1947 doing, in an isolated Cornish hamlet, although she isn’t sure what she is waiting for. This might seem like a less-than-engaging narrative device, but Sarah Winman creates gripping suspense while unfolding Marvellous’s memories, from lonely nights spent “willing her life to change” to the time “Whatshisname” was lured in her direction by a Louis Armstrong song playing on the wireless. Paths cross in unexpected ways in this pacey plot. An unlikely friendship develops at the core of the compelling tale when Marvellous meets a troubled young soldier, Drake. Storytelling rejuvenates Drake: as Marvellous shares stories of her life resonating with the transcendent power of love, Drake learns how to marvel at life again, seeing the extraordinary in the ordinary. “Everyone had a limit,” writes Winman, engrossingly showing characters pushed past their breaking point. The novel’s surprising denouement is also well worth the wait. .
A Year of Marvellous Ways is published by Tinder Press (£16.99). Click here to buy it for £12.99
