When Nina Stibbe burst on to the literary scene in 2013 with Love, Nina, she established herself as a writer with a talent for astute observational humour. Her debut novel, Man at the Helm, published a year later, was a semi-autobiographical tale about 10-year-old Lizzie Vogel, and her tragicomic attempts to find a husband for her bohemian, often self-destructive mother.
With Paradise Lodge, Stibbe has written Lizzie’s coming-of-age story. It is now 1977 and she is 15, living at home with her mother, her mother’s partner and three siblings. Frustrated by the family’s finances, and her inability to buy the coffee and shampoo she likes, she takes a part-time job as an auxiliary nurse in an old people’s home – the ironically named Paradise Lodge of the book’s title: “I loved the idea of being professionally compassionate.” Her job brings her into contact with a cast of characters – from eccentric patients to emotionally damaged staff – who provide a rich canvas for Stibbe’s wry humour.
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