Major Pettigrew's Last Stand - Helen Simonson
Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand (Random House, $25) is without a doubt my favorite novel of the year. Helen Simonson’s extraordinary debut brings us to the small English village of Edgcombe St. Mary, where the widowed Major Ernest Pettigrew lives a quiet, refined life in his family home. Unexpected circumstances bring him into contact with Mrs. Jasmina Ali, the village’s widowed Pakistani shopkeeper. The two soon develop a friendship over cups of tea, and their shared love of literature slowly blossoms into love. Not only was it a pleasure to read about older characters finding love the second time around, but there is also a lot of fun along the way involving the eccentricities of the village and its residents.