Paradise Lodge - Softcover

Stibbe, Nina

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0241240255 ISBN 13: 9780241240250

Publisher: Viking, 2016

Synopsis

This is the story of Lizzie Vogel, a 15 year old girl who finds herself working in an old people's home in Leicestershire in the 1970s. The place is in chaos and it's not really a suitable job for a schoolgirl: she'd only gone for the job because she wanted a new phase and it seemed too exhausting to commit to being a full-time girlfriend or a punk. Lizzie has some knowledge of old people (they're not suited to granary bread, and you mustn't compare them to toddlers) but she doesn't know there's a right way to get someone out of the bath, or what to do when someone dies.

When a rival old people's home with better parking and daily chairobics threatens to take all their patients, Paradise Lodge's cast of staff and helpers, from the assertively shy Nurse who only communicates through little grunts to the son of the Chinese takeaway manager who's renowned for his erotic handholding techniques, have to come together to save the home before it's too late.

From the bestselling author of Love, Nina comes a story of being very young, and very old, and the laughter, and the tears, in between.

About this title

Review:

LOVE it! Instant classic - funny, wise, touching, entirely delightful (Marian Keyes)

A new Nina Stibbe?! Best day ever (Emma Healey)

The funniest new writer to arrive in years (Andrew O’Hagan)

The one problem with reviewing Stibbe is that I just want to quote entire pages: it's all so brilliant. She captures exactly what it's like to be a teenager, with all its contradictions, confusions, anxieties and ambitions. (The i)

There is a laugh out loud moment in every chapter. Paradise Lodge brilliantly captures the internal panic of a teenager (Kathy Burke)

A touch of Holden Caulfield in 1970s Leicestershire... I wouldn't mind fetching up at Paradise Lodge when my time comes: at least we'd all share a laugh, a hug and a terrible cup of tea before the dying of the light. (Lee Langley Spectator)

There is never a dull moment in this lively, sensitive, roaringly funny tale (Daily Express)

Stibbe looks at another chapter of her life through the prism of her trademark deadpan, acutely observed humour (Stylist)

Irreverent, warm and hugely entertaining (Daily Mail)

The whole book surprises and impresses... I'm not surprised to see that Stibbe's writing has been compared to Jane Austen's (Emma Healey Guardian)

From the Back Cover:

'An instant classic - funny, wise, touching, entirely delightful' Marian Keyes

Fifteen-year-old Lizzie Vogel should be in school. Instead she's working at the Paradise Lodge old people's home for 35p an hour. (To pay for coffee and shampoo, luxuries her bankrupt mother can't afford.) Unfortunately, Paradise Lodge is on the verge of its own insolvency and despite the restricted diet (apple-and-raisin pie, three times a day) and a rival old people's home stealing its residents, Lizzie must somehow keep her charges alive, her mother sane (or at least off the drugs) and outwit the school head who's noted her absence. It's a lot of work for a regular supply of Linco Beer Shampoo . . .

'Keenly observed and sparkling with Stibbe's trademark deadpan humour. A quintessentially English social comedy: a novel that revels in the comic - and occasionally tragic - minutiae of everyday life' Observer

'Unforgettable: touching, funny, grotesque and brimful of real and surprising characters' Irish Times

'A touch of Holden Caulfield in 1970s Leicestershire... I wouldn't mind fetching up at Paradise Lodge when my time comes: at least we'd all share a laugh, a hug and a terrible cup of tea before the 'dying of the light' Lee Langley, Spectator

About this edition

• Publisher: Viking
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 0241240255
• ISBN 13: 9780241240250
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 288