This is a funny and delightful (and also serious and scientific) story of two British women on an adventure to find the golden beetle of New Caledonia, a French territory island  in the Pacific Ocean east of Australia and Northwest of New Zealand. 

In post World War II London, the forty-something spinster Miss Benson is teaching school, but she’s always wanted to be a scientist working at the Natural History Museum, specifically collecting beetle specimens, a passion she has had ever since her father showed her a photo from the Incredible Creatures book–a book of creatures that have not yet been found, but that people claim exist. 

So this passion sits inside of her while she reels from unrequited love and endures a job she can’t stand. When she has the money to make her big journey, she decides to go for it, seeking an assistant to travel with her, bushwhack through forests and up mountains, find specimens and log them, and discover that golden beetle in a remote area of New Caldonia. 

She ends up with Enid, a young woman with a storied past who wants a baby more than anything in the world. She knows nothing about science or beetles or traveling or camping or speaking French, but she needs an escape from her life. 

These two women make an unlikely pair, and the joy in this book is watching them figure out how to get along, break rules, get ahead, and create a beautiful friendship. 

This reminded me a little bit of Eleanor Oliphant and also Lessons in Chemistry and a bit of Olive Kitteridge: smart, witty women overlooked and unappreciated who end up shining.