Meet me at the Museum is written as an epistolary novel (one of my favorite style of books) and opens with a women’s letter to a Danish museum inquiring about the The Tollund Man*, whose preserved corpse is exhibited there.

I had never heard of The Tollund Man, who lived during the Iron Age, 250 BC, but I learned about him (it?) through this book. This initial inquiry turns into a correspondence between a widower and a farmer’s wife in Great Britain.

Both characters open up slowly — but eventually they drop their formal addressing and are soon using each other’s first names – Anders and Tina. They are also slow to reveal their past stories and reluctant to share their dis-satisfactions with their current lives — the walls of their privacy, slow to break down.
As I read this book, I really enjoyed piecing together these humble character’s lives through their honest and heartfelt correspondence.

This is not a fast-paced, plot-driven novel – it is thoughtful and quiet — rich in depth and language — it was a real reading pleasure.

This book depicts the delightful step into a blossoming relationship between two strangers who are both, at heart, lonely for someone to listen to them. A simple correspondence to ask about a feature of the Danish Silkeborg Museum, the Tollund Man, begins this friendship between a farmer's wife from East Anglia and the curator of the museum and a widower.
The Tollund Man has held an emotional attachment for the wife, Tina since childhood. His history connected her to her best friend who passed away. He continues to be her life's lodestone dangling possibilities that she has never been able to move toward. This connection allows her to open up through her correspondence with Anders Larsen, the curator.
Their letters back and forth are so beautifully and vulnerably written and their relationship blossoms gradually as a rose bud opens to the sun. Each shares about themselves and their lives, past and present, finding sustenance for their daily lives in the exchange of details and ideas. A deep friendship grows and flourishes through their words. The magic of seeing things in a new way is one of the beautiful aspects of their letters.
The author has done a wonderful job of creating ordinary characters that expressively evolve. Both Tina and Anders become more in tune with themselves and their feelings over time. This is profoundly valuable to each of them, particularly by the end of the book.
I found this an exquisite read much like finding a secret treasure hidden inside an old cardboard box. I was truly saddened to say goodby to these friends. I do have to take issue with Ms. Youngson's choice of ending however. I understand it, but I so wanted a bit more. I suspect she is totally aware of the reader's desires and gives us what is just short of that to keep it honest and true to the characters she has created.
I would recommend this book to anyone who relishes beautiful words and enjoys character driven fiction. It would be a great book club choice. While I wouldn't limit the audience, I think this will appeal more to mature readers like myself who might relate better to the experiences of Tina and Anders.
My thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this title.

Not a fan of epistolary novels. I find it difficult to ascribe motivations to them. This was just not my cup of tea and I would not have requested it, if I had realized that it what it was.

A wonderful series of letters leads two disjointed people, each struggling with their own issues, down a path of similarities and differences. Both are uncovering needs, insecurities, desires letter by letter that may have been left buried had the first correspondence never been sent. Two lovely things about this - the actual writing of letters to correspond to one another and the fact their growing relationship was entirely accidental. Absolutely loved this.

This is a wonderful story of a woman taking charge of her life. Tina Hopgood, is a farmer’s wife in England dissatisfied with her life. She writes a letter to a man who passed away and gets a return note from Anders Larsen, the curator at a Danish museum. The books is their correspondence over issues of history, science, family and life in general. Both reveal their personal life as they discuss these topics. Anders becomes concerned when the letters suddenly stop and the conclusion of the book lets you decide the ending. Letter writing is certainly a lost art and many young readers might have a difficult time relating to the story. I received a copy of this ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Meet Me at the Museum is such a charming little novel. Characters with such a sweet development. Everything about this book makes me incredibly happy from the size of the actual book,. the characters, the plot. All simply wonderful.

Tina and Anders have two completely different lives but are brought together by their common interest in the Tollund Man in Denmark. She’s English; he’s Danish. They’re both going through a mid-life crisis of sorts. This is an epistolary novel (think Guernsey Potato Peel Pie and Literary Society). Sweet, short and enlightening.
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Two lonely adults in vastly different settings accidentally find one another when one writes a letter to a museum exhibit after the death of her childhood friend. Thus begins a correspondence that slowly moves away from the specifics of the exhibit to a pen pal-like relationship between them, as they seek to learn about one another’s disparate lives. This is a gentle tale of the self-exploration that occurs when personal losses accumulate.

Anne Youngson's "Meet Me at the Museum" is a series of letters back and forth between a woman in England who has long-desired to visit a museum in Denmark to see the Tollund Man and the current curator of the Museum Silkeborg where the Tollund Man is housed.  Initially, Tina believes that she is writing a letter to Professor Peter Glob, the author of the book "The Bog People".  When the current curator, Professor Anders Larsen, finds the letter on his desk, he decides to write back.

This reply begins a back and forth of letters and emails between two strangers who become friends and confidants that lasts over a year.  They ride the ups and downs of everyday life as well as the discussion of how they ended up where they are now.  

I found that the book starts off slow, however, I was glad that I kept up with the story until the end.  I think that you'll like "Meet Me at the Museum" as well.

MEET ME AT THE MUSEUM by debut author Anne Youngson is one of my favorite books of the year so far. That is mostly because of how beautifully written it is and how it surprised me that readers would be able to envision so much through the correspondence that is the heart of this novel. The first letter is from Tina Hopgood, now a farmer's wife and grandmother in East Anglia, who refers to an archeological finding (the Tollund Man) which was an avid interest of her younger self. She writes to Professor Glob, a scholar involved with the find. He, however, is no longer alive and Anders Larsen, a widowed curator at the Silkeborg Museum in Denmark, responds to her.

From there, the letters gradually become less formal, more self-reflective and increasingly personal as each shares life events and musings. One of my most favorite passages is "Whenever I pick raspberries, I go as carefully as possible down the row, looking for every ripe fruit. But however careful I am, when I turn round to go back the other way, I find fruit I had not seen approaching the plants from the opposite direction. Another life, I thought, might be like a second pass down the row of raspberry canes; there would be good things I had not come across in my first life, but I suspect I would find much of the fruit was already in my basket."

There is an online reading group guide, but MEET ME AT THE MUSEUM is so unique you may want to savor it with just a few special friends. This title is an Amazon Best Book for August 2018, as well as being both a LibraryReads and Indie Next selection.

Links in live post:
https://us.macmillan.com/excerpt?isbn=9781250295163
https://images.macmillan.com/folio-assets/rgg-guides/9781250295163RGG.pdf

I adore epistolary novels. I feel like I am the “fly on the wall” in the writers’ life. Meet Me at the Museum is one of the best of that style of novel that I have read.

Tina has recently lost her best friend. She is past 60 and thinking that her opportunity for fulfilling her life goals is fast escaping her. She decides to see the prehistoric Tollund man (a real object located in the Silkeborg Museum in Denmark) so she writes to her old pen pal who works at the museum. Unfortunately, he has died but the current museum’s curator, Anders, responds. Thus begins the short and romantic tale Meet Me at the Museum.

In the first letter Tina writes,

“it must have occurred to you that what you thought would happen when you were young, never did.”

Who of us over a certain age hasn’t had that feeling of regret at roads not taken? The love story and tale of second chances regardless of your circumstances is beautifully written with just the right tone. This book has many asides that discuss archeology, knitting, farming, and opera among many more subjects. But ultimately it is a fictional memoir of two strangers’ lives made closer by their impersonal method of communicating by letter. Using such a slow and detached medium allowed both Tina and Anders to talk about their true feeling without embarrassment much like Americans talk to a therapist.

I enjoyed both of their stories though they veered from sorrowful to joyful to resigned and back. It is definitely a compelling read. I stayed up past midnight and read it in one sitting. Meet Me at the Museum is perfect for fans of Nicholas Sparks’ The Notebook. 4 stars!

Thanks to Flatiron Books and NetGalley for an advanced copy.

A quiet story of two people, who have never met, but find friendship and explore the meaning of their lives in their correspondence. I love epistulary novels because you catch the inner lives of the people writing. I grew to know Tina and Anders through their words to each other and especially appreciated the honesty in their lives.

I have been whining a bit about reading books that I have liked but not being able to find something that I have loved. This book ended that streak. I LOVED this quiet epistolary novel about two people trying to make sense of where their lives have taken him, facing their loneliness and finding someone who understands and values them even if they live in separate countries. Out on 8/7

A gentle story, told entirely through letters, that explores life and the choices that we make. Explores dreams and reality and being honest to yourself.

A sweet,charming story about an unlikely friendship between an elderly woman and an art curator.. Written entirely in the form of letters exchanged between the two, a friendship between two lonely people blossoms over a mutual love of history, art, and nature. Like a slow burn, these letters turn into a more personal correspondence, with each of them opening up about their personal lives. Youngson's writing is almost lyrical and so descriptive, it will make the reader long for this forgotten form of communication (and book a flight to Denmark).

I loved this book and hated to have it end. I'm still thinking about these two lonely characters who find comfort and perspective in writing down their most intimate thoughts to a perfect stranger. Only an epistolary novel could achieve what this author has done here.

This is just what I wanted.

I love epistolary novels. A story in letters creates a novel that is immediately intimate. Meet Me at the Museum is well-crafted and heartfelt without being maudlin or sentimental.

Tina Hopgood, farm wife in East Anglia, writes to Dr. Glob in Denmark, a professor who dedicated a book about The Tollund Man to her and her classmates when she was a girl. Dr. Glob is deceased, so the curator of the museum, Anders Larsen, responds to Tina’s inquiry, which at first sparks a casual, friendly correspondence that soon blossoms into letters between two lonely people confiding their fears, regrets, and hopes to one another.

Anders and Tina are both in their 60s, a time of life, Anders explains, where there is more behind them than ahead of them, and yet there’s still time to make a change. Anders is widowed and his children have grown up and moved away. He is alone, and lonely. Tina is married with a farm full of her children and grandchildren, and yet she is also alone and lonely. The both find the companionship they never had in one another.

The ideas explored in this book were profound: feeling alone in a crowded room, questioning life decisions and wondering if those choices mattered, being overwhelmed with noticing things one once took for granted. This book is far from being trite; it offers insight into the big questions that are revealed when one takes a step away from the mundane.

It is a beautiful book. At fewer than 300 pages, there is still enough substance within the letters to gradually develop a relationship that is succinct and revelatory, and the denouement is satisfying without giving away too much.

Highly recommended if you enjoyed 84, Charing Cross Road or The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. Meet Me at the Museum is a stellar example of all that can be accomplished with letters.

Many thanks to Netgalley and Flatiron Books for the advance copy in exchange for my review.

3.5 stars

“Our letters have meant so much to us because we have both arrived at the same point in our lives. More behind us than ahead of us.”
-Anne Youngson

They have never met. They have never even seen a picture of the other. They live over 700 miles apart. Yet, they have found more comfort and companionship in each other than they ever thought possible.

Tina Hopgood lives in East Anglia, England, on a farm. She has lived there with her husband for over 30 years. Her children, now adults, are part of the farm and her daily life. Tina writes a letter intended to be received by Professor P.V. Glob, a Danish archaeologist at the Silkeborg Museum in Denmark. A book that was dedicated to her by this Professor when she was a child, had prompted her to write to him. His discovery and excavation of the well preserved Tullund Man from the bogs of Jutland, is a memory that stayed with her over all the years. One of these days, she will make the trip to the museum to see this man from 250 BC, herself.

“I want there to be a significance in the connection made between you and me in 1964 that links back to the man buried in the bog two thousand years ago.”
-Anne Youngson

Anders works at the Silkeborg Museum in Denmark. He receives a letter from a Tina Hopgood from England, intended for Professor P.V. Glob. But the Professor had died several years ago and Anders politely writes her back sending along some general Museum information. Not a long while later, Trina writes back as a means of explaining how all of this has become so important to her and why she has waited so long to follow this interest. Anders politely replies. And this continues, not by e-mail, but the old fashioned way through the postal system. Anders begins to open up about his work and inquiries about her natural surroundings living on the farm in the countryside.

“In particular, I have been thinking of what sort of history that is my special field. What lasts? What is it that determines what lasts?”
-Anne Youngson

Their letters carry on for a timespan of about a year with conversations ranging from history, ecology, herpetology and biology, to venturing into their personal lives, their children, their thoughts, likes and dislikes. Until one day….it stops!

***

Inspired by the actual Tollund Man and the real Silkeborg Museum in Denmark, this epistolary novel is all about friendship. Trina and Anders share a deep connection that evokes them to think. They are not always of the same opinion, but feel they can respectfully express themselves to the other. Their vulnerabilities makes this novel sweet and real.

The plotline expands beyond the two characters involving their families and what is happening in their lives. In parts you forget you are reading this entire novel in letters. There are moment of joy, despair, hope and loss. It is not a fast paced read. It renders so much honesty and simple goodness, it does not require speed or loud activity. It is a journey inward in a sense. Something to read while sipping hot cocoa. Very lovely and sweet.

I received a digital copy of this ARC from Netgalley in exchange of an honest review. All opinions are my own. Thank you kindly.

As I began reading the correspondence between a farmers wife, in England, and a Curator in Denmark I wasn't certain I was going to finish the story. But as the letters began to become more and more personal and learning about these two individuals and the life's they led drew me in. Anne Youngson has written a Beautifully engrossing work with historical references that left me curious enough to explore.

A warm and intensely human story, told with a fresh and clear voice. These are characters who will stay with the reader long after the novel is finished.