The tenants of historic Shelly House have all received eviction notices; their landlord intends to tear down the building and replace it with a luxury high rise apartment house. Not all the tenants are taking this lying down. Freya Sampson's novel Nosy Neighbors (#1,289) does a wonderful job pulling together an unlikely cast of characters to bond for a single cause.
Dorothy Darling has been there in Flat 2 for over thirty years, and nothing is going to budge her. Across the hall, her nemesis, Joseph Chambers, has yet another illegal subtenant - one with neon pink hair! Then there's the unsocial tenant above her, the big man with the pugnacious and smelly dog, and Gloria with a constant parade of unsuitable men in and out of her apartment. The Siddiqs, father and daughter, are about the only other tenants Dorothy is willing to tolerate, but even she misses the wonderful food odors which used to waft from their apartment while Mrs. Siddiq was still alive. It takes a body being carried from Shelly House to begin to unite these reluctant neighbors with a little help from Joseph's Jack Russell terrier, Reggie.
I think I enjoyed this book so much because it reminded me of Clare Pooley's books about community-building from unlikely sources. The book doesn't have a fairy tale ending, but Ms. Sampson does write a satisfactory open-ended conclusion. Can't ask more than that!
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