The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot

The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot by Marianne Cronin  326 pp.

This is the story of an unlikely but wonderful friendship. Lenni Pettersson is seventeen years old and living in the terminal ward of a Scottish hospital. She is still full of life and mischief even though she is dying, essentially alone, having been left by both of her parents. When art classes begin at the hospital, she is dissatisfied with the class for her own age group and instead joins the senior citizen class. There she becomes friends with the purple pajama wearing Margot. Together they realize that their ages added together make one hundred years. They hatch a plan of making one hundred paintings to commemorate each year. There are stories that go with the paintings which tell the lives of Lenni and Margot over the years. Of course, Margot has many more stories than Lenni but Lenni's in hospital antics make up for her lack of stories. I listened to the audiobook version, read in two voices that bring to life both women. Even though it is ultimately about death, there is a lot of life being lived in the story. It wasn't quite what I expected but I enjoyed it.