Life is messy . . . but it’s the messy bits that give it meaning.

Anna has a clear plan for her new life. When she discovers she’s pregnant, she prepares to finally leave London behind and move to idyllic Provence, France, with her lovable baby-to-be. Anna’s partner, the easy-going Tobias, shouldn’t have too much difficulty tagging along—after all, he’s a musician who rarely starts his day before noon. But all those plans change when their baby is born less than perfect.

Little do Anna and Tobias know that this is the beginning of what will become an incredible journey of the heart, during which they’ll learn that there truly is no such thing as a mouse-proof kitchen. The couple and their severely disabled new daughter, Freya, end up in a vermin-infested farmhouse in a remote town in France—far from the mansion in Provence they’d originally imagined. Their rickety home is falling down among them, their eccentric lonely neighbors won’t leave them alone, and Freya’s hospital stays are becoming frighteningly frequent. Anna must draw on reserves of strength she never knew she had just to keep going from day to day. But will it be enough to keep her family together?

Told with humor and warmth, The Mouse-Proof Kitchen is the moving and thought-provoking story of how the best parts of life are often the most complicated, and how love can be found in the least likely of places.

Recommended to book clubs by 0 of 0 members.