Benny & Shrimp
Penguin, July 2009
Two middle-aged misfits and a love that should not be as complicated as it seems
It started in a cemetery, where they begrudgingly share a bench. "Shrimp," the childless young widow and librarian with a sharp intellect and a home so tidy that her jam jars are in alphabetical order, meets Benny, the gentle, overworked milk farmer who fears becoming the village's Old Bachelor. Both driven by an enormous longing and loudly ticking biological clocks, they can't escape the powerful attraction between them.
But how will she learn to accept that he falls asleep at the opera and has a house full of his mother's cross-stitch? And how could he ever feel at home in her minimalist apartment, bare as a dentist's waiting room?
An international sensation now available for the first time in the United States, this quirky, humorous, completely readable novel
breathes new life into the age-old conundrum that is love.
paperback | ISBN: 9781906021368 | Publication Date: July 2009
Reviews:
"Offbeat, charming and fun -- and also seriously addictive."
--Claire Cook, author of Must Love Dogs and The Wildwater Walking Club
"I fell in love with Benny and Shrimp from the first time they saw each other . . . This novel heals broken hearts, gently banishes sorrow, accommodates real life. I stayed up Late to finish reading."
--Luanne Rice, author of The Geometry of Sisters and The Deep Blue Sea for Beginners
"Share this book with others, but make sure your own copy is safe. For it's a book to keep in your purse . . . to have close at hand whenever life deals you a blow. It will restore your faith in love and goodness. And put a smile on your face."
--Linda Olsson, author of Astrid & Veronika
"Benny & Shrimp is a delightfully honest, sensitively
told tale that gives new meaning to 'The course of true love never runs
smooth.'"
--Jeanne Ray, author of Julie and Romeo and Julie and
Romeo Get Lucky
"An offbeat, down-to-earth love story . . . addictive . . . a novel
that touches love's fundamentals."
--The Observer (London)
"A charming and funny Swedish love story, about two lonely people on
the brink of middle age. Their obvious need for each other drives them
into each other's arms, and their differences threaten to drive them
apart . . . Their unconventional relationship is entirely believable."
--The Times (London)
