Book Review: Frankie by Graham Norton

By Theresa Smith Writes on Jul 30, 2024

About the Book:

Always on the periphery, looking on, young Frankie Howe was never quite sure enough of herself to take centre stage - after all, life had already judged her harshly. Now old, Frankie finds it easier to forget the life that came before.

Then Damian, a young Irish carer, arrives at her London flat, there to keep an eye on her as she recovers from a fall. A memory is sparked, and the past crackles into life as Damian listens to the story Frankie has kept stored away all these years.

Travelling from post-war Ireland to 1960s New York - a city full of art, larger than life characters and turmoil - Frankie shares a world in which friendship and chance encounters collide. A place where, for a while, life blazes with an intensity that can't last but will perhaps live on in other ways and in other people.

Published by Hachette Australia

Released September 2024

My Thoughts:

Favourite author feels over this one! Frankie by Graham Norton is everything we've come to expect from one of his novels, brimming with emotion and connection. He writes about life with exceptional clarity. Spanning decades, from post war Ireland to 1960s London, then onto NewYork and back to London again in the late 1980s through to present day, this story unfolds in pieces, from girlhood to old age, we bear witness to Frankie's life, the lows, the highs, the heartaches and the victories. So many heartaches though.

When Frankie requires an in home nurse after a fall, it's a young Irish carer living and working in London who arrives on the scene. Prickly at first, Frankie warms to him rapidly, and they pass the time with Frankie telling a willing Damian her life story. Frankie's life is long and there are many eras she has lived through, but the one that made the most impact in the telling, at least for me, was the Aids epidemic in New York in the 1980s. Norton writes of this period with such finesse, the impact of it upon his characters, and his readers, immeasurable.

This story flows like silk, it's beautifully written with such wonderful characters and such attention to historical detail. Above all, it is a novel of friendship and love. Another five star read by Graham Norton. Just divine.

Thanks to Hachette Australia for the copy.