Guppies for Tea

Amelia's relationship with her boyfriend is ending although she doesn't know it when the book opens. Meanwhile, her grandmother has been placed in a convalescent/nursing home. Her uncle has sold the grandmother's home and moved to Brazil but no one has told the grandmother that she will never go home again. And her mother is obsessed with cleanliness. It's a poignant novel descibing what life is like in a nursing home that it's almost depressing when one considers many people eventually go there. Amelia herself is rather flighty, thinking and planning but not acting upon her plans. Still, she promises her grandmother that she'll be home by Christmas. And sets out to accomplish this even though the house belongs to someone else now.

This show more is a first novel and I enjoyed the author's writing; I'll probably get some of her other books to read. show less

A book about dealing with old age and the changes in relationships that happen with age. Interesting and poignant it echoes reality and should be standard reading for people working with and making policies for homes for the elderly. Although some of the characters were a bit cliched and overdrawn you could see the echo of reality in them.

Another book by Marika Cobbold with so much heart it made my heart break in many places. The twin threads of a relationship breakdown and the deteriation of an elderly relative are painful topics, you can't read this without feeling. Saying that, there where lots of light comic touches and feel good moments throughout.

Fast! Funny! Poignant! Fresh! A likeable young heroine, whose own life is in disarray, manages her beloved grandmother's escape from a nursing home.

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