Paradise Lodge

An English girl comes of age amid nursing home residents in this "funny and touching, brutal and tender" novel by the author of Man at the Helm (Guardian, UK).

After succeeding in her quest to help her unconventional mother find a new "man at the helm," fifteen-year-old Lizzie Vogel simply wants to be a normal teenager. Just when it looks as if things have settled down, her mother goes and has another baby. On top of that, Lizzie's best friend has deserted her for the punk craze, which Lizzie finds too exhausting to commit to.


But Lizzie gets more commitment than she bargained for when she takes a job as a junior nurse at Paradise Lodge, a ramshackle refuge for the elderly. What begins as a way to avoid school and earn extra money quickly turns into the education of a lifetime. Lizzie encounters a colorful cast of characters—including a nurse determined to turn one of the patients into a husband (and a retirement plan); an efficient but clueless nun trying to modernize the place; and Lizzie's unlikely first love—who become her surrogate family.


When Paradise Lodge faces a crisis in the form of a rival nursing, Lizzie must find a way to save her job before she loses the only place she's ever felt she belongs. A hilarious and heartfelt coming-of-age tale, Paradise Lodge proves that it's never too early—or too late—to grow up.

"Another deft helping of absurd social comedy and unconventional wisdom from a writer of singular, decidedly English gifts." —Kirkus