Five close friends in their 90s meet – as they have for decades –for their monthly ‘ladies’ lunch’ to puzzle over and laugh at the enigmas and affronts of ageing. When one of their number is placed unhappily in a home the others conspire to spring her. Lore Segal’s witty yet poignant short story, Ladies’ Lunch, appeared in the New Yorker in 2017, when she herself turned ninety. It was followed by four sequels. For this sparkling collection, Segal has returned to her group of erudite, sharp-minded nonagenarians in Manhattan to create a novella from the linked stories, offering startling insights into friendship and mortality. In the book’s Other Stories, Segal includes tales from her acclaimed and prizewinning oeuvre to illuminate the hinterland of her characters – one of whom, like her, was a kindertransport refugee. Beautifully crafted and profound, these stories distil the spirit of one of America’s great authors to show us what a long life might bring.
