Review: Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman

Such is the case with Gail Honeyman’s Eleanor Oliphant. It’s unremarkable as first lines go (“When people ask me what I do – taxi drivers, hairdressers –I tell them I work in an office”), but it subtly poses questions and tees up the most refreshing and heart-warming debut I’ve read in some time. Eleanor has worked at the same boring job for eight years.

She has the same routine: home to her council flat, the Archers and pasta with pesto and salad for tea. On a Friday, she buys a margarita pizza and two bottles of vodka to see her through the weekend: “Monday takes a long time to come round.” Eleanor, who’s 31, was in care through much of her childhood and has hazy flashbacks to a traumatic event. Her mum calls on Wednesday evening from prison, and there’s no love between them. When scruffy new office IT guy Raymond and Eleanor see an elderly man take a tumble, it draws them together into a tentative friendship that will eventually help Eleanor break free from her lonely existence and learn how to live. Not only is she a joy to read as a character – brave, smart and funny – Eleanor will give readers some perspective on their own lives.

Published by HarperCollins, priced £12.99.