Looking For Eliza

Leaf Arbuthnot

From Shelf: Platinum Reviews (September 2020)

A widow grieving the loss of her husband puts up adverts to 'Rent a Granny' in an attempt to reconnect with people... it's not until she finds Eliza, a student recently free of an abusive relationship, that she truly starts to feel less alone. For readers who enjoyed Elizabeth is Missing, Tin Man and Normal People.

'Clever, warm and funny' - ADAM KAY'Beautifully rendered, thoughtful and original' - Pandora Sykes'A marvellous read' - Ruth HoganAda is a widowed writer, navigating loneliness in Oxford after the death of her husband. She has no children. No grandchildren. She fears she is becoming peripheral, another invisible woman. Eliza is a student at the university. She finds it difficult to form meaningful relationships after the estrangement of her mother and breakup with her girlfriend.After meeting through Ada's new venture, 'Rent-a-Gran', and bonding over Lapsang Souchong tea and Primo Levi, they begin to find what they're looking for in each other. But can they cast off their isolation for good? An exquisite story of connection and loss, and how a person can change another person's life. Full of heartache yet joyful and life-affirming, this is for fans of Normal People, Expectation and Sarah Winman's Tin Man.'Leaf's writing is warm and lyrically funny - she has an eye for details both sublime and ridiculous.Looking for Eliza is an intelligent and big-hearted read with the human condition at its core.' - Harriet Walker, The Times