4.5 stars for “The Red Address Book” by Sofia Lindbergh. What a charming and heartwarming story.

Doris is 96 and currently living in Stockholm with nurses checking on her. The only family she has is Jenny, her grand-niece, who lives in San Francisco so they only Skype once a week. Doris is lonely, and begins to look through her red address book, a gift given to her from her father when she is a child. There are many names of people she has met throughout her life, most crossed out with the word “dead” written next to them.

Doris wants to leave Jenny the story of her life so reminisces while looking through the red address book. She tells stories of her time as a maid when she was just a teenager in Stockholm and her friend, Gosta, that she met there. She tells stories of when she moved to Paris and became a living mannequin. Paris is also where she meets Allan, the love of her life. There are so many great and some not so great stories of her life and her travels all over the world.

When Doris has a fall, she ends up in the hospital, and Jenny rushes to Stockholm to be by her side for her last few days. Jenny finds the notes Doris has written for her and some letters and photographs throughout Doris’s life. She learns so much from her grand-aunt, but the most important lesson she learns from her is love.

This really was a lovely story. It was well written and kept a good pace, I thoroughly enjoyed it and honestly wanted to learn more about Doris’s life as if she was a real person. I would recommend this to anyone looking for a feel good story with a little heartbreak, but a lot of living and loving throughout.

Thank you NetGalley and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for an ARC in exchange of my honest review.