***Out now: David Nicholls’s new novel YOU ARE HERE***
THE BOOKER PRIZE-LONGLISTED NOVEL BY BELOVED BESTSELLER DAVID NICHOLLS
A brilliant, bittersweet novel about love and family, husbands and wives, parents and children
‘Perfect’
INDEPENDENT
‘I honestly can’t imagine loving a novel much more’
SUNDAY TIMES
‘Funny and sweet – a lovely, lovely book’
GRAHAM NORTON
‘A sad, funny, soulful joy’
OBSERVER
‘I loved this book. Funny, sad, tender: for anyone who wants to know what happens after the Happy Ever After’
JOJO MOYES
Douglas and Connie – scientist and artist, husband and wife – live a quiet and quietly unremarkable life in the suburbs of London. Until, suddenly, after more than twenty years of marriage, Connie decides she wants a divorce.
Heartbroken but determined, Douglas comes up with the perfect plan: he is going to win back the love of his wife and the respect of Albie, their teenage son, by organising the holiday of a lifetime.
The hotels are booked, the tickets bought, the itinerary planned and printed.
What could possibly go wrong?
ONE OF BRITAIN’S MOST ACCLAIMED WRITERS
‘One of the most astute chroniclers of England as it is now’
FINANCIAL TIMES
‘An uncanny ability to make us laugh out loud, but also care passionately about his characters’
DAILY TELEGRAPH
‘Nicholls writes with such tender precision about love’
THE TIMES
‘No one else writes novels that are both relatable and revelatory in the way he does’
EVENING STANDARD
‘Genuinely brilliant’
NEW STATESMAN
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Reviews
A literary and anthropological tour de force . . . astute and packed with brilliant observations, about life, art, culture and the infinite possibilities for human disappointment. I honestly can't imagine loving a novel much more
A perfect book
Beautiful, funny and brilliant
Clever and likeable
I loved this book. Funny, sad, tender: for anyone who wants to know what happens after the Happy Ever After
I read it through tears in maybe two sittings . . . at the heart of the book is one man's plight to just get things right. And whoever you are, however logical, or practical with your emotions, most of us just want to get things right when it comes to the people we love
I read it through tears in maybe two sittings . . . at the heart of the book is one man's plight to just get things right. And whoever you are, however logical, or practical with your emotions, most of us just want to get things right when it comes to the people we love
Nicholls has captured, with rare accuracy, the hopes, fears, compromises and silly jokes that make up our lives. The title says it all: he really is writing about Us
Nicholls has raised his game . . . the clear writing often dazzles with truth . . . a sad, funny, soulful joy of a book
Nicholls, it seems, was born to write about love, in all its sweetness and bitterness . . . thoughtful, funny, authentic . . . Us begins as a sweet read, but evolves into an examination of love's complexities - the battle between the heart and the brain . . . The kind of book that reminds us what it means to be alive
Wonderful. A novel that manages to be both truly hilarious and deeply affecting. I loved it
Us is a work of Cheever-esque perfection that absolutely captures the exquisite horror of not being able to do right for wrong
Us is a quiet joy, written with an undemonstrative simplicity that is hard to achieve
A compulsively readable, formally inventive, extremely funny yet achingly melancholy love story
A wrenching examination of a journey through Europe that goes terribly wrong and a consideration of what it means to be a parent today
A great combination of laughs and heart
A happier, lighter, more well-adjusted version of Gone Girl . . . For all of their burdens and battles, Douglas and Connie have moments of real joy in their marriage and while it doesn't always seem like a pleasure, reading about it sure is
A spectacularly well observed, funny and often heartbreaking account of the difficulties of marriage and parenting
An emotive romantic comedy, ingeniously structured
As he proved in One Day, Nicholls is brilliant at picking apart modern life with all its hopes, disillusionments and regrets, and marrying it to a gently heartbreaking narrative
Bittersweet, beautifully rendered
Even better than One Day
Few authors do messed-up relationships better than Nicholls
He doesn't just have a sharp eye for a story, his characters also have real depth and his books are a delicate balance between warmth and edge. No-one ever gets too easy a ride. Us . . . is no exception
His organisation of the story is impeccable . . . The narrative neatly weaves present and past with a perfect rhythmic sense of when to leave or revisit a particular strand. The dialogue is always bouncy . . . acute and astute about the dynamics of relationships
I enjoyed Us immensely. David has a sublime talent for illuminating the murky causeway that most of us have to navigate between darkness and light, happiness and sadness; the place where fatigue is, and restlessness, where love is tested and strained and sometimes broken
It's funny, moving and, of course, wonderfully written
It's the perfect follow-up to One Day because it takes romance to a middle-aged place. It's funny and sweet - a lovely, lovely book
Never has a book about the end of a love affair been so heartrendingly romantic and bittersweet. Rich in pathos, humour and steeped in the wisdom of maturity
Nicholls again deals with love lost and possibility found, offering an unpredictable ending . . . a poignant story of regret in middle age
Nicholls is a master of the braided narrative, weaving the past and present to create an intricate whole, one that is at times deceptively light and unexpectedly devastating . . . this is a funny and moving novel perfect for a long journey
Nicholls is a delightfully funny writer . . . Us evolves into a poignant consideration of how a marriage ages, how parents mess up and what survives despite all those challenges
Nicholls writes with such tender precision about love, this time about a type of relationship often neglected as unsexy - the long-married couple . . . wry, plaintive but ever hopeful
Nicholls's ability to create and then subvert the traditional plot for a comedy is the secret of his success. It makes us confront the gap between what we expect from storytelling and what happens in real life . . . it is this frank exploration of some of the unromantic realities of marriage and growing old that makes this book moving and thought-provoking
Nicholls's superior brand of romantic comedy, shot through with dark shards of truth, gets under the skin
Those who loved Nicholls's last novel, One Day, will not be disappointed. Us has many of the same qualities, including an almost magical readability. Though it is an ambitious novel, intricately patterned, which tackles complex and subtle themes, it has the furious pace of a thriller . . . I was having to ration myself for fear of coming to the end too soon
Very funny, wise and bittersweet
Peerless at mixing eye-smarting tragedy with ebullient comedy
Well worth the wait . . . A poignant and acutely observed portrayal of a marriage that's lost its way
A stylish comedy delivered with all of Nicholls's customary aplomb
David Nicholls has such finesse with character that he can create two central figures who are self-deceiving, funny, awful and touching - and who pull you through the narrative like magnets
Us is an entertaining and clever crossover read . . . one of the best portrayals of the complexities of a long-term relationship I've seen in a contemporary novel
Us is the tender, sometimes funny, often heartbreaking journey of two adults experiencing one of those growing-up moments in life that is somehow all the more poignant because they think they're too old to grow up
A great novel . . . Nicholls is a master of nuanced relationships. He's also a pro at delivering a tight, clever structural narrative