Many of us think of the past as the "good old days," and for 96-year-old Doris Alm, there is almost a century's worth of good days to keep track of. Feeling that her end is near, Doris decides to revisit the names in her address book and unload her memories of each person on paper, with the hope that they are passed down to her only living family, her grandniece Jenny, who has loved and admired Doris all her life.

So begins Sofia Lundberg's The Red Address Book, with a very fragile Doris recalling a life with people long dead. We start in 1928 Stockholm, when Doris is only 10 years old, and move on to her days as a model in Paris in the 1930s, then to New York City, where she hopes to reunite with the love of her life. She later heads to England, where she is rescued off a sinking ship, and finally returns to Stockholm, where she types her final pages for Jenny.

With love and humor, Doris' stories prove that the good old days are often filled with a lot of regret, pain and heartache. But what the heart chooses to remember is our perseverance through the most impossible of challenges. Just when Lundberg has led you to believe that Doris has said all there is to say, Jenny delivers an ending that even Doris could have never imagined.

Like a cozy conversation with your grandma, The Red Address Book warms your heart and soul.

 

This article was originally published in the January 2019 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

DEBUT Lundberg's first novel introduces 96-year-old Doris Alm, of Stockholm, Sweden, who recalls her many years on this Earth. Her lifelong belief is that, above all, love matters most. Reminiscing during her weekly Skype calls to her only living relative, her grandniece, Jenny, in San Francisco, Doris wants to be sure that Jenny, who had a difficult childhood, appreciates her approach to life and her significant relationships. As a young child, Doris was given a red address book by her beloved father, who died shortly thereafter. The book includes many details, about which Jenny is curious. When Doris's health falters, Jenny travels to Stockholm to be with her and learns of her great-aunt's many connections, bonds, and experiences during World War II: working as a living mannequin in 1930s Paris; being rescued at sea by a fisherman; laboring as a housekeeper in Sweden. VERDICT Readers who enjoyed Eleanor Brown's The Light of Paris or Nina George's The Little French Bistro will delight in seeing Doris's life unfold in this charming, tender tale.—Andrea Tarr, Corona P.L., CA

Lundberg's sometimes overly sweet debut centers on a 96-year-old Swedish woman passing down her life story by remembering the names in her address book. Doris may be old, but she doesn't want to be treated as such. However, when she ends up in the hospital after an accident, she must face her own mortality and desire for independence. Doris, who has lived a full and colorful life, wants to make sure her American granddaughter Jenny knows all about it before it's too late. So she sets about writing the story of her life, framed by the names in her address book. One by one she goes through the entries and describes her life at the time she was associated with each person—modeling in Paris, then experiencing the horrors of WWII before moving to Sweden and marrying. While the present-day narrative is often cluttered with overly sentimental dialogue and hampered by an underwhelming account of Jenny's travel woes as she tries to reach Doris, Doris's life story is magnetic, and it's her strong personality and pearls of wisdom ("Start cultivating your talents rather than going through life thinking you aren't not good enough. In the end, that's all that really matters. You're never any more than your soul") that drive the book. Both story lines become melodramatic during the neatly tied ending, but fans of Fredrik Backman will find much to like here. (Jan.)