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A curmudgeonly but charming old woman, her estranged grandson, and a colony of penguins proves it's never too late to be the person you want to be in this rich, heartwarming story from the acclaimed author of Ellie and the Harpmaker.
Eighty-five-year-old Veronica McCreedy is estranged from her family and wants to find a worthwhile cause to leave her fortune to. When she sees a documentary about penguins being studied in Antarctica, she tells the scientists she's coming to visit—and won't take no for an answer. Shortly after arriving, she convinces the reluctant team to rescue an orphaned baby penguin. He becomes part of life at the base, and Veronica's closed heart starts to open.
Her grandson, Patrick, comes to Antarctica to make one last attempt to get to know his grandmother. Together, Veronica, Patrick, and even the scientists learn what family, love, and connection are all about.
"[A] light, fun story...this adorable tale will put a smile on your face." —Good Housekeeping
"A warm and witty journey of self-discovery. Prior proves that it's never too late to become the person you were meant to be. But it might require a trip to Antarctica. And penguins." —Wendy Wax, USA Today bestselling author of My Ex-Best Friend's Wedding
"Veronica McCreedy is an unforgettable heroine. Crotchety, clever and oddly lovable, she kept me turning pages well into the night. Prior has given us a story of love, loss, forgiveness, and the unlikely bonds that form when we least expect it. Humorous and true with finely-drawn characters." —Elyssa Friedland, author of The Floating Feldmans
"A beautiful expedition into Antarctica, but more importantly, the human heart. Hazel Prior has written a sweet and timely story about how one cranky old woman is no match for a tiny, adorable penguin chick." —Brooke Fossey, author of The Big Finish
This information about How the Penguins Saved Veronica was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Hazel Prior is a harpist based in Exmoor, England. Originally from Oxford, she fell in love with the harp as a student and now performs regularly. She's had short stories published in literary magazines, and has won numerous writing competitions in the UK. Ellie and The Harpmaker is her first novel and she is working on her second.
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