Thank you to NetGalley and Random House UK, Transworld for this ARC.

Eddie is 90 years old but still works in a charity shop in Birmingham with his boss/friend Marjie for something to do. He rescues personal items like letters from dead people's belongings by taking them home. He even acquires a guinea pig that way and calls it Pushkin. One day 24 year old Bella comes in to donate some of her dead boyfriend's clothes. There are some personal items in with them that Eddie decides to look after because he is sure that Bella will come back - and she does.

Eddie and Bella become firm friends, spending lunch hours together. She finds out that at his ripe age he's never been kissed although he was in love once. So Bella makes Eddie an online dating account and accompanies his dating adventures.

This story has a lot of the traits of Cronin's first book "The Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot", what with the friendship of young and old and the flashbacks to someone's younger years, only that here we don't learn of Eddie's life from himself but through the eyes of Bridie, a professor's wife when he was a young student. He called her Birdie and carried a torch for her, but she was married and way too Catholic to ever act on her feelings.

The thing that surprised me a little was that Eddie is 90 but speaks, acts and dresses like a sprightly 60 year old. He just takes everything in his stride, whether it takes him to Brighton, Corfu or Pigeon Park in Brum. He is a gentle, warm soul who is even concerned with his guinea pig's love life, and is a match-maker between two of his neighbours. When Bella encounters a man she nicknames Ham and Cheese due to his choice of sandwich, he encourages her to meet up. However, Bella is still grieving, going to therapy and writing letters to dead Jake.

This is a heart-warming and at times funny story of friendship, grief and second chances. It is beautifully written, with quirky, life-affirming characters, and draws you in until Eddie, Bella, Bridie and Marjie feel like your friends. I had tears in my eyes at the end - the funeral and that thing with Jake's shoes, oh God.

"And she will have love, wherever she goes."

Also, I admit that I don't normally pay much attention to chapter headings as they are usually just numbers, but these are exquisite.

"Life is all about timing, in the end."

So true.