Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine

How it reads

Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine is contemporary fiction (upmarket contemporary fiction, specifically), and its dominant mood is heartwarming. It's kind, generous and emotionally satisfying. The pace is moderate — neither a page-turner nor a slow burn — so it holds up whether you read it in long sittings or short ones.

It's set in a big city setting, in the present day, told in the third person, staying close to one character. Its central concerns are identity, friendship and loss and grief. In weight it sits in the middle: substantial without being heavy going.

It stands alone, so there's nothing else you need to read first or after. The ending resolves happily. At 390 pages it's an ordinary novel's length. It's a mega-bestseller — the book everyone seems to have read.