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‘Remarkably Bright Creatures’ is a remarkably charming book. Narrated, in part, by an Octopus (yes you heard me right), Marcellus McSquiddles, is a sixty-pound Giant Pacific, who has lived the vast majority of his life in an aquarium tank in Puget Sound.

Without giving this wonderful plot away, (no spoilers here), a bored Marcellus finds his life entangled with two special humans who enter his confined and limited world – both easily seen to be requiring help – which Marcellus is all too competently (and even compassionately) able to provide.

Starting with Tova Sullivan, a pragmatic and deeply wounded seventy-year-old cleaner at the aquarium, who, recently widowed and facing an uncertain retirement, catches the interest, and heart, of this intelligent creature. Which is further complicated when Cameron Cassmore, a thirty-year-old drifter of sorts, finds his way into town, and the sphere of influence that our many-tentacled hero is willing to exert.

Rich with colorful and quirky characters, this books reads as a heartwarming cross between the neighborly small-town feel of the best of Anne Tyler, and the feel-good whimsy of Matt Haig.

I loved this book, reading it cover-to-cover with barely a pause. A lovely reminder, with hints of magic and mystery, that one can, after all, find friends, (and love and bigheartedness), in the very strangest of strange places.