What is so appealing about A Year of Marvellous Ways in that in its pursuit of magical joy and hope, again expressed in ways so lyrical your heart will dance as you read, it doesn’t pretend that everything will be all right as some kind of foregone conclusion. Yeah, totally. She has come to that space, and you do see it with some older people that they are very comfortable with who they are. They’re comfortable with their past and with where they are in their present, and they’re not holding onto a future because they know that every day might be their last one, really. So, yeah I like the way she came out. What do you think about the relationship between Francis and Marvellous? Memory is a central theme in the book – do you think it was presented as something that is reliable? How did you feel about the element of magic in the book – did it intrigue you or turn you off? And while she admits to pain and loss and regret – there is no attempt by her to whitewash life; she admits to the worst but keeps aiming and hoping for the best, testament to the power of belief and expectation – she refuses to let them define her life or her attitude to its living. One to read slowly so you can savour every beautiful sentence * Good Housekeeping (Book of the Month) *

Hi Sarah. Congratulations on being chosen to take part in the Richard and Judy Book Club Spring 2016! How did it feel to find out A Year of Marvellous Ways had been selected?A gripping waiting game ... The novel's surprising denouement is also well worth the wait * Observer *

The stories are touching and the twist of magical realism lends them a joyful, fairytale element * Daily Record * And that marvellously doesn’t sound pretentious or overly-pronounced but authentic and real with a dash of the sort of otherworldiness and magic that many of us wish routinely came with everyday life. At a recent event Sarah Winman proclaimed, “I’m not interested in the probable, only the possible.” That is particularly apparent in Marvellous’ story. She is a remarkable character and woven throughout her narrative are elements of fantasy and wonder. It truly indulges your imagination. But it requires you to come to the book as a non-skeptical reader, to suspend belief or judgment and just be open to simply embrace beautiful storytelling. She is particularly good at bringing the sensations of landscape to bear - its smell, sound and look - and in Marvellous has created a character of warmth and eccentricity * Metro * If you have been reading along with me – I would love to hear what you thought in the comments below. As is standard, in all my book club geekery, I have fished out some questions for you to muse on:Ridicule, misunderstanding – Marvellous is by no means a conventional woman of thought or deed and has consequently suffered for it – lost love, missed opportunities, a fractured family whose gaps have been filled by fancy and imagination, all could be considered to have blighted her life.

The central character is, of course, Marvellous herself whose radical perspective frequently disarmed me. She’s someone who prizes the stripped-down simplicity of the world over heedless progress: “Some things are best left untouched, she said. Tides rise and tides fall. That is perfection enough.” She communes with inanimate objects which sounds fanciful but comes across as a deep, meaningful conversation she’s having with herself more than the world around her. Over the course of the novel, we learn about the three great loves of her life. Her first lover was a woman, but rather than dwelling upon trying to define sexuality its refreshing how she moves from that to relationships with men without ponderous reflection or attributing any meaning to it. She’s also someone dealing with dementia and her struggle with the loss of memory is meaningfully related.

Customer reviews

It’s Good Friday and the start of a four day weekend so there’s no excuse not to snuggle up with a cup of tea and a good book. The latest Book Club review comes once again from Emma Kingston from Year of the Yes. Probably that everybody has a story, you know, and people who are invisible in the world have an equal story to us, maybe a little bit more extraordinary at times. But everybody deserves to be listened to, and deserves to be seen. I suppose we’re entering a phase in society where a lot of people are invisible today, and I hope it’s a story that makes one section of society a little bit more visible.