Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman

 

Eleanor Oliphant is a loner.  With her scarred face from a housefire when she was ten, she doesn't expect anyone to interact with her.  During the week she goes to work, a job she has had since the week she left university.  She's now thirty and the pay is terrible but perhaps that's all she is worth.  On weekends, she has vodka to get her through although she won't speak to anyone until Monday when she returns to start another week.  After the fire, she grew up in care where she was basically not much more than the furniture.  Her only outside contact is her mother, who calls to berate her once a week.  

But things change at work when Raymond comes to work in IT.  He works on Eleanor's computer and asks her to go to lunch.  While they are out, they help a man who has collapsed on the street.  As they go to visit him in the hospital and then meet his family at a going-home party, Eleanor realizes that she could have friends.  She develops a crush on a singer but then realizes she is nothing to him.

After her disappointment in love, Eleanor starts going to a counselor.  That woman allows Eleanor to examine her life and bring to the surface memories she has repressed since childhood.  Can Eleanor find her way to health and a normal life?

Gail Honeyman is a Scottish author.   This was her debut novel and it was incredibly successful, winning awards for First Novel and being selected by Reese's Book Club as a selection.  The reader will emphasize with Eleanor and wish for anything to happen to make her life better.  Eleanor's secrets are slowly revealed and the book ends with the prospect of Eleanor finally having a normal life.  This book is recommended for readers of literary fiction.