Frankie
A Novel
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4.4 • 67 Ratings
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
"Warm and wise, Frankie is a woman worth getting to know."—Bonnie Garmus, New York Times-bestselling author of Lessons in Chemistry
From the internationally bestselling author and host of The Graham Norton Show, a dazzling and decades-sweeping work of historical fiction about love, bravery, and what it means to live a significant life.
Always on the periphery, looking on, young Frankie Howe was never quite sure enough of herself to take center stage—after all, life had already judged her harshly. Now old, Frankie finds it easier to forget the life that came before.
Then Damian, a young Irish caretaker, arrives at her London flat, there to keep an eye on her as she recovers from a fall. A memory is sparked, and the past crackles into life as Damian listens to the coming of age story Frankie has kept stored away all these years.
Traveling from post-war Ireland to 1960s New York—a city full of art, larger-than-life characters and turmoil—Frankie shares a world in which friendship and chance encounters collide. A place where, for a while, life blazes with an intensity that can’t last but will perhaps live on in other ways and in other people.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The pleasing latest from talk show host Norton (after Forever Home) traces an Irishwoman's circuitous journey toward self-fulfillment. Frankie Howe, an 84-year-old West Londoner, tells her life story to her young caretaker, with whom she bonds over hailing from the same part of Cork. Her story begins in 1950 when, at 10, her parents die in a freak accident and she's sent to live with religious relatives, who marry her off to a man named Canon Frost. Naive and unhappy with her neglectful and philandering husband, she's spied kissing another man and renounced by Canon after word gets back to him. She flees to London in 1960, where a childhood friend takes her in and introduces her to mercurial theater producer Van Everdeen, who hires Frankie as her secretary. During a trip with Van to New York, Frankie loses her job and return ticket thanks to Van's temper, then lucks into a new romance and builds a life there, eventually becoming a chef at a French restaurant. Troubles ensue as the narrative extends to the AIDS epidemic, which plays a role in Frankie's eventual return to London. Norton's character work is top notch as Frankie perseveres through one challenge after another. Readers will be glad to go along for the ride.
Customer Reviews
Frankie
GN just found another fan of his books. It had everything!
Lovely
I was so engrossed in this tale coming to the end was a mite shocking. I wasn’t ready to let any of the characters go, except for those in Frankie’s dim past.