Mrs Palfrey At The Claremont: A Virago Modern Classic (Virago Modern Classics): 83

Shortlisted for the Booker Prize A humorous and compassionate look at friendship between an old woman and a young man. On a rainy Sunday in January, the recently widowed Mrs Palfrey arrives at the Claremont Hotel where she will spend her remaining days. Her fellow residents are magnificently eccentric and endlessly curious, living off crumbs of affection and snippets of gossip. Together, upper lips stiffened, they fight off their twin enemies: boredom and the Grim Reaper. Then one day Mrs Palfrey strikes up an unlikely friendship with an impoverished young writer, Ludo, who sees her as inspiration for his novel.