Saving Missy: The Sunday Times bestseller and the most heartwarming debut fiction novel of 2021

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There is a reason why people don't like movies and books about animals and it's the same reason why I started with don't like this book and ended up hating it. Now, if you stop a minute to think about the ending you can see that the author was probably trying to create a plot twist that didn't go well. I was always encouraged by my English teacher to write, but Witnesses don’t encourage any kind of creative application, so it was a real conflict. I quit an engineering degree in 2002 to write. My family isn’t at all literary and when I told them I had a novel coming out, one uncle asked if I’d had a ghost writer. They’re wonderful people – just very different. They’re still Jehovah’s Witnesses, and they think I’m stupid: I was taught the “truth” and decided to go against that. I’ve tried to give up on them, but I really can’t. They may give up on me after this book comes out – who knows?” One day Missy meets two women in the park and listens to their stories and connects with them. Finally she starts to leave home and fill her life with new responsibilities including taking care of a sweetest dog.

A beautiful story about love, loss, guilt and the power of friendship' Jill Mansell, Maybe This Time Missy is lonely and lost. She also has a big secret that has scarred her life and her relationships. A joyful, tender, life affirming STUNNER of a book' - Cressida McLaughlin, author of The Cornish Cream Tea BusWhen Missy meets the exuberant Angela and her young son Otis I was sure Angela was only looking for a babysitter. She then introduces Missy to designer and fellow dog-walker Sylvie who soon makes her way into Missy’s home and life. It was easy at the start to think t I admit, at the beginning I was not Missy’s biggest fan. I wanted to shake her hard and tell her to get a grip. But as she started to come out of her shell, and let others in, I really warmed to her. Her transformation throughout the novel was one of the best I’ve ever read. The glimpses of her past, both happy and sad, really helped to ground her character. This book really highlights how important love is in life, no matter where we get it from.

I’ll stop there, at just over a third of the way through, but there are more. We hear similar thoughts about her guilt over some dreadful thing she did in the past. If I had cared about her at first, I no longer did, because it felt like a writer’s ploy to keep me hooked. Dystopian Fiction Books Everyone Should Read: Explore The Darker Side of Possible Worlds and Alternative Futures I think I decided I wanted to be a writer aged six after reading [Roald Dahl’s] Fantastic Mr Fox. I used to write lots of stories about cats. There are writers in my family – my parents were TEFL teachers who eventually wrote a series of textbooks for people learning English as a foreign language and my grandfather was a journalist. I expect Olive Kitteridge has spoiled me for irritable, depressed old ladies who love and miss their sons. But Olive is definitely a one-off, so I shouldn’t hold that against everybody else, should I?

A generous-hearted story showing the transformative power of friendship and community ... A fabulously enjoyable book' - Sarah Haywood, author of The Cactus A generous-hearted story showing the transformative power of friendship and community … A fabulously enjoyable book’ Sarah Haywood, author of The Cactus Triggered by exchanges with her new acquaintances, and items brought forth out of the attic, memories from Missy’s childhood, her first encounter with Leonard Carmichael, and significant incidents during their almost six decades of marriage, emerge. Thus the reader learns how Missy Carmichael arrived at this point in her life. Gradually revealed, too, are Missy’s secrets, her regrets and those things about which she feels most guilty. In the end, 3.5 Stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️✨. There are some I would recommend it to but not everyone on my F&F list.

Things change though with the arrival of Sylvie (about whom I would have liked to know more), Angela and her son Otis into her life. And even more so with Bobby – the dog she takes in grudgingly. Missy had finally made her mind up to go to the park and watch them electrocute the fish, so that she will have something to talk about with Arthur, her beloved grandson. More and more these days she finds that she is doing things just to provide a story to share with her family. Moving but not sentimental ... [a character] as complex, frustrating, vulnerable and surprising as any I've met in print' - Eleanor Wasserberg, author of Foxlowe I’d like to see books by more writers of colour and those books get more publicity. I’d like there to be more emphasis on different ways of storytelling. There’s a difference in how stories are told in different countries and we don’t see that variety. It’s a love story about two souls trapped in a hyper-masculine world who are struggling to get by, to survive, to love each other.A year teaching English in Hong Kong provided the setting and subject matter for Exciting Times, the story of a love triangle that also explores class, colonialism, language and more, while also being frank about female sexuality. Dolan’s friend Sally Rooney (a couple of years ahead at Trinity), published the first chapter in her literary journal, Stinging Fly, and a seven-way publishers’ scrum ensued. Is she, as the industry buzz suggests, the next Rooney? We’ll see when her novel hits bookshops in April. The best thing is when stuff comes out of your head that surprises you: that’s wonderful. The worst thing is the scrutiny. I know that not everyone is going to like my book and I’ve just got to take it on the chin. That is until Sylvie and Angela bound into her life. Although to be fair, I think Angela – brash and opinionated – does more pushing than bounding. For me Angela is a ‘grower’– at the beginning of the novel I was unsure about her, by the end I absolutely loved her!