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A Year of Marvelous Ways

by Sarah Winman

An unlikely friendship on the Cornwall coast

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AlbakiReads Editorial

An unlikely friendship on the Cornwall coast

Set in 1940s Cornwall, the novel brings together Marvelous Ways, an eighty-nine-year-old woman living beside a creek, and Francis Drake, a young soldier grieving a fellow comrade. Francis arrives injured while carrying out his friend’s request to deliver a letter to his father; Marvelous comes to his aid. Their connection links two very different points in life: her long store of loves and stories, and his search for a reason to continue. The coastal setting and their shared solitude frame questions of friendship, purpose, grief, and the possibility of finding connection close at hand.

Good fit for readers who enjoy

  • Readers interested in literary fiction set in 1940s Cornwall.
  • Readers drawn to stories of intergenerational friendship and companionship.
  • Readers interested in characters confronting grief, purpose, and major life transitions.

Themes

FriendshipGrief and lossPurposeConnection across generationsLife and aging

Based on publisher information and book metadata.

Book overview

The remarkably life-affirming novel from the highly acclaimed author of Still Life, set in 1940s Cornwall following the unlikely friendship between an eighty-nine-year-old woman at the end of her story and a young soldier, reeling from World War II, at the start of his own.

Marvelous Ways has lived alone alongside a winding creek near the rugged Cornwall coast for nearly all her life, and has recently taken to spending her days sitting on the steps of her caravan with a telescope. She is waiting for something, but she's not sure what. She will know when she sees it and that is good enough for her.

Francis Drake, a young soldier adrift after the death of a fellow comrade, is grateful for the mission that guides his days. He has agreed to fulfil his friend's last wish: to hand-deliver a letter to his father in Cornwall. But Francis's journey doesn't go as planned. After a brief, sweet, and serendipitous reunion with a woman from his past, Francis washes up in Marvelous's creek, broken both in body and spirit.

Marvelous will come to his aid, and an unlikely friendship will grow between these two solitary souls. Marvelous has lived a long life, with many loves and countless stories to tell, and Francis needs a reason to keep going--even just the hope that life still has more to offer.

A beautiful, bighearted story that bursts with the magic of what it means to grab hold of connection and purpose when it is right in front of you, A Year of Marvelous Ways is a testament to friendship and another timeless classic from the acclaimed Sarah Winman.
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