The Pickled Egg

She is seventy years old. She lives alone in a little house. Her husband of fifty years passed away last year. And she is, without question, the most cheerful person on the street.

Known to everyone only as The Pickled Egg, she wakes each morning at half past six, makes her tea in the cup with the tiny violets on it, tends her garden, plays bridge every other Thursday, and finds something genuinely wonderful in nearly everything - including the rabbit that ate her best lettuce, the neighbor across the street who hasn't smiled since 2004, and a power outage that turns into the finest Friday evening she's had in years.

This is her year.

The Pickled Egg: Life is Good (Even When It Isn't) is an episodic novel about grief and gladness, about the art of paying attention, and about a woman who has decided - firmly, cheerfully, and without apology - that the world is still full of things worth noticing. A cardinal named Gerald. Lemon bars with extra zest. The way morning light comes through a kitchen window when you're not in a hurry.

It will make you laugh out loud. It may make you cry a little. It will almost certainly make you want to slow down.

Perfect for fans of Fredrik Backman, Alexander McCall Smith, and anyone who believes that an ordinary life, looked at closely enough, is extraordinary.