Dani's Review:
Doris knows she is dying. All the people she has loved in her life have died, save one: her great-niece, Jenny, who lives half a world away from Sweden in San Francisco. But she is not without hope. She is determined to write down her life story for Jenny before she passes, so Doris spends her lonely hours thinking of her past and typing it out. The chapters jump between 96-year old Doris and her younger self, recounting the time she spends in Sweden, Paris, New York, England, and all points in between. She works as a maid and a model, experiences love and loss, and watches the world burn during WWII.

I was kept on the edge of my seat, not just as Doris recounted her younger-self's adventures, but also desperate to know if she would make it to the end of her story before her health failed. Would she find love? Would she ever see Jenny again?! I loved the emphasis that her story placed on all the different kinds of love Doris experienced throughout her life: romantic, familial, and platonic. The series of deep connections she describes portrays a life well-lived, even more than her achievements or the many places she sees.

This was a great read. I highly recommend it for book clubs and readers in the Sandwich Generation: "the generation of people, typically in their thirties or forties, responsible for bringing up their own children and for the care of their aging parents."

Saffron's Review:
This was a great read…I loved going back and forth between Doris’s past and current life.

Aldrig i mit liv har jeg før grædt over en bog. Men da jeg læste slutningen til den røde adressebog endte jeg med at tude-græde midt i min stue.
Jeg købte bogen da den var på udsalg og jeg forventede en virkelig dårlig romance bog jeg kunne skrive om til Gry. Men Jesus Christ hvor var den god.
Den er så utroligt velskrevet, man kan virkelig mærke forfatteren har puttede sin sjæl. Alle karaktererne har dybde og man får lyst til at læse om dem. Måden kapitlerne er sat op med nutid og fortid er også virkelig godt lavet.
Det er OVERHOVED ikke den slags bog jeg normalt læser, men jeg var så følelsesmæssigt investeret det er utroligt. En klar 5/5.

4.3/5⭐️

This book ran the gamut of emotions...heart wrenching, despairing but ultimately triumphant. The life of a 96-year-old Swedish woman is told through letters she writes to her great-niece as she nears the end of her life. It’s unique, as she centers her narrative around those folks she’s met in her life who made it into her red address book...some she knew well, some not but almost all ended up with a strike through their name and DEAD written in the margins of the book. It’s a story of loss, love, and desperately trying to survive during the tumultuous years of WW2 in Europe and the US. It was a bit depressing but also absorbing and yes, there were a few tears while reading. There was an uplifting ending however. Trigger: There was a rape scene, not overly graphic.

Thanks to #NetGalley and #HoughtonMifflinHarcourt for the ARC. The opinions are strictly my own.

Thanks Netgalley for the ARC of this book. I really enjoyed this one and I bawled my eyes out last night when I read the ending. This books makes one think about things like missed opportunities and the true meaning of love.

A really sweet book about love and loss. Written so that it is an easy read, loved the different perspectives, too.

It is nearly impossible to believe that this book was written by a 45-year-old woman (presumably several years younger at the time of writing). Though some of 96-year-old Doris's life experiences seem so implausible, Lundberg tells the story with such depth of feeling that they are entirely believable. It all feels so immediate. Her musings on aging, outliving your loved ones, regrets of a lifetime, and similar subjects are incredibly moving and insightful. It makes the reader want to tell every elderly person they meet "I see you." Truly a beautiful book.

The fine print: received ARC from NetGalley.

A little corny and melodramatic, but a satisfying yarn nonetheless. Lots of transatlantic passages and descriptions of European city life before and after WWII. We get an interesting main character in Doris, whom we follow from her childhood in Stockholm to her unhappy stint as a model in Paris to her travels in New York and beyond.

3 1/2 stars

Oh, this book.

I want to hug it.

There is a somber, melancholic tone as Doris (a 96 year old woman) reflects on her life (based on the names written in her address book), a life full and well-lived.

There is also plenty of love and uplifting feelings, too.

This story, although fictionalized, is based on the author’s experience with her beloved Aunt Doris whose address book she found after she died – so it makes the story even more meaningful.

I loved the idea of the names in her address book telling her story and I came to love Doris for her strength and feistiness.

This is sweet, sad and sentimental but such a glorious reading experience.