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  • Published: 3 September 2019
  • ISBN: 9781784163464
  • Imprint: Black Swan
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 240
  • RRP: $22.99

Meet Me at the Museum

Shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award 2018




'A moving tribute to friendship and love, to the courage of the ordinary, and to starting again' RACHEL JOYCE

**As read on BBC Radio Four**

Uplifting, joyous, hopeful - a novel about late love and second chances, shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award and winner of the Paul Torday Memorial Prize

'A moving tribute to friendship and love, to the courage of the ordinary, and to starting again' RACHEL JOYCE, author of Miss Benson's Beetle
'Full of grace and humanity' Sunday Times
________________________

This story begins with a letter
From a housewife
to the gentle curator
Of an extraordinary museum
Where lies peacefully
An ancient exhibit
That holds the key
To Everything
We are.

Meet Me at the Museum tells of a connection made across oceans and against all the odds. Through intimate stories of joy, despair, and discovery, two people are drawn inexorably towards each other, until a shattering revelation pushes their friendship to the very edge.

This deeply affecting debut novel by seventy-three year-old Anne Youngson won the Paul Torday Memorial Prize and was dramatized on BBC Radio 4 Woman's Hour

*******************************
'Tender, wise and moving, Meet Me at the Museum is a novel to cherish.' JOHN BOYNE

'Insightful, emotionally acute and absorbing' DAILY EXPRESS

'Beautiful and affecting' NINA STIBBE

What readers are saying:
'I loved this book. It was so different from anything else I have read'*****
'I just loved this book and read it in one sitting. There were times when I felt like underlining the sentences that resonated with me'*****
'I read this book one letter at a time, just to let the contents sink in. Tears came to my eyes'*****

  • Published: 3 September 2019
  • ISBN: 9781784163464
  • Imprint: Black Swan
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 240
  • RRP: $22.99

About the author

Anne Youngson

ANNE YOUNGSON lives in Oxfordshire and is married with two children and two grandchildren to date. MEET ME AT THE MUSEUM, her debut novel, was shortlisted for the Costa Best First Novel Award and won the inaugural Paul Torday prize for debut fiction by writers over sixty. Her exquisite new novel is also about the joy of discovering new experiences and friendships. Her work is published around the world.

Also by Anne Youngson

See all

Praise for Meet Me at the Museum

Exquisite. Its characters somehow resist following their story and reverse themselves into a new one. A beautiful lasting read.

JAMES HANNAH, author of THE A TO Z OF YOU AND ME

Insightful, emotionally acute and absorbing

Daily Express Literary highlights 2018

A moving tribute to friendship and love, to the courage of the ordinary, and to starting again.

RACHEL JOYCE

‘Tender, wise and moving, Meet Me at the Museum is a novel to cherish.’

JOHN BOYNE

The loveliest short novel of late love you'll ever read. Whenever I talk about it, I simply cry with joy

JAMES HAWES

Quietly intriguing, beautifully observed, full of powerful emotions

RUTH HOGAN, Author of The Keeper of Lost Things

I thoroughly recommend this book to anyone looking for a book that makes you think and wonder and quietly hope. Loved it.

Tammy Cohen

A quirky, wise and tender novel. Proof that the richest fruits come on the edge of autumn

SARAH DUNANT

Warm-hearted, clear-minded, and unexpectedly spellbinding, Meet Me at the Museum is a novel to savour

ANNIE BARROWS, co-author of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

A beautiful, affecting novel of late love, by an extraordinary new writer

NINA STIBBE

Precise, clear, funny, poignant and truthful. This is a work of art, dear readers. Revel in its beauty

ADRIANI TRIGIANI

Intriguing and compelling, Meet Me at the Museum invites you into the meeting place between two people, imparting wisdom, thought, and endless charm.

JENNIFER RYAN, author of The Chilbury Ladies' Choir

A correspondence that begins with a search for clarity becomes something much deeper and richer - both for the two main characters, and for the reader. Anne Youngson peels away the layers that prevent us from living the lives we ought to be leading, and her book is both tender and absorbing.

LISSA EVANS, author of Their Finest Hour and a Half

Full of grace and humanity

Sunday Times

Intriguing, tender, unexpectedly moving

Woman and Home

Full of emotion, wisdom and honesty, the story envelops the reader in a celebration of true friendship and an appreciation of the opportunities that life can unexpectedly present. This book makes you realise that life is too short and that the future can be more hopeful than we anticipate. If you only read one book this year, read this. Highly recommended

Mature Times

An insightful and emotional debut … tenderly hints at second chances and rejuvenation

Sunday Express

Full of funny, wise perceptions. The author is 70. This lovely novel is her debut. When's the next?

Saga Magazine

Absolutely beautiful, about loss and the life choices we make

Liz Hoggard, Daily Mail

A thoughtful and gentle meditation on buried passions, regrets, love, grief and loneliness . . . Youngson’s debut offers hope for change in its tender exploration of what it means to have experienced a life well-lived.

Guardian

I thought the author wrote the content of the letters absolutely beautifully, making the characters jump off the page.

The Writing Garnet

I love books like this, that you can immerse yourself in and enjoy as a treat – books that just hold you in their spell.

On The Shelf Book Blog

Tina and Anders will capture your heart and you will root for them all the way. A very accomplished debut by Anne Youngson.

Novel Deelights

There is a sensitivity and warmth throughout that I found utterly charming.

Reflections of a Reader

It was beautifully crafted and once I had the book open I didn't close it until I had read the last page.

Books And Me

This book touched me to the heart – quite beautiful and exceptionally moving, and one of the very best books I’ve read this year.

Being Anne

When the book finished, I felt an immense sadness that I had to say goodbye to these two people.

My Reading Corner

I loved the setting and the characters were great, it was a pleasure to read.

Donna's Book Blog

Few books ever have that much impact on me and I feel this is something that everyone needs to experience.

Book Lover Worm

A beautiful, lyrical love story, played out with words and paper.

My Weekly

Top Holiday Reads - BEST FOR SALVING THE SOUL

The Herald

Gentle, moving, joyous

Guardian