Meet Me at the Museum
By Anne Youngson
Published 2018
Read Jan 2026
This reader was introduced to this book while waiting in line to sign up for an immensely popular book discussion at a local library, the topic of which would be The Correspondent. Interaction in the waiting line led to the recommendation of this book, another book written in the epistolary format.
Tina Hopgood, the wife of a farmer in England, and Anders Larsen, a curator at a Danish museum are the correspondents in this book. A good friend of Tina has recently died and, it seems, their shared life-long dream of visiting the Tollund Man, a bog man from the Iron Age, at the Silkeborg Museum in Denmark. Tina writes to a professor at the museum who was involved in its excavation. The professor has died but a curator at the museum, Anders Larsen, responds to her inquiry and suggests she visit the museum to see the exhibit as it’s never too late. Thus commences a series of letters between these two individuals.
Over a long series of letters, the two correspondents evolve from information exchange about the Tollund Man and the like to sharing their losses and their disappointments as well as things they enjoy in their very different environments. We learn that forty years ago, Tina’s unplanned pregnancy propelled her into a marriage with a farmer she likely didn’t even love at the time. She discusses this early decision and the life she’s lived as a result. Despite much daily activity and the gift of grandchildren, she finds herself lonely. Anders’s wife had a number of problems and has recently died and he is now alone in his very neat and efficient home.
The evolution of their letters led this reader to worry a bit about “emotional adultery” but an interesting twist in the story brings that worry to an end.
Enjoy this fairly short read to learn about these interesting characters, their relationship, and the story twist. You won’t be disappointed.
MarshaReads.com 