NOVELS TO BREAK – AND MEND – YOUR HEART

SAVING MISSY ★★★★ Beth Morrey HarperCollins, £12.99

MILLICENT Carmichael is as prickly as a porcupine.At almost 79, she’s spiky with regret, as well as stubborn, smart and terribly, terribly lonely.

She is mourning her husband Leo; her son and her grandson live in Australia and she’s estranged from her daughter Melanie following a mean, sad fight.

Rattling around in her big, empty house, Missy is miserable, fretting about the mistakes she has made and unable to imagine a happier future. Then she takes herself to the park on a bitterly cold day to watch fish stunning, when carp are mildly electrocuted so they can be transferred to another pond.

This outing changes everything. In short order, Missy meets brash, mouthy Angela and her lovely son Otis and they introduce her to warm, engaging Sylvie. Slowly Missy’s life begins to change.

But it’s not all plain sailing. Missy’s loneliness is so entrenched, “a galactic isolation”, that her reaction to any new or challenging situation is standoffish to the point of rudeness.

Debut author Beth Morrey brilliantly captures the push/pull of Missy’s emotions: her yearning to connect; her fear of misinterpreting others’ friendliness; her desperation to talk when “I’d spent most of my life not saying things I wanted to”; and the prickly pride that covers intense vulnerability.

Then Missy’s house is broken into. It takes this burglary – and the adoption of a dog called Bob – to break down barriers. Missy meets other dog walkers, she begins to babysit Otis, and she lets interior designer Sylvie loose in the attics of her house, stuffed full of lovely furniture and memorabilia from Missy’s past. Sylvie transforms the rooms into a cosy sanctuary. Missy also begins to delve into her memories – from her recollections of her war hero father and her Suffragette mother to her first meeting with Leo at Cambridge, where they both studied; to her postnatal depression and the secret she could never share.

Tender, funny and thoughtful, Saving Missy wholeheartedly celebrates second chances and the power of friendship.