Us
The Booker Prize-longlisted novel from the author of ONE DAY and YOU ARE HERE
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4.3 • 88 Ratings
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
LONGLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE
NOW A MAJOR BBC DRAMA STARRING TOM HOLLANDER AND SASKIA REEVES
'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?
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
The author of the runaway bestseller One Day tackles a different, more mature love story in the fantastically moving Us. Nominated for the Man Booker Prize longlist, David Nicholls’ novel starts when 54-year-old Douglas Petersen’s wife of more than two decades announces she’s leaving after their only son, Albie, heads to college in the autumn. Desperate to recapture Connie’s heart, Douglas organises a grand European vacation, during which he reflects on the past and attempts to mend his relationships with the two most important people in his life. Nicholls’ middle-aged narrator is a triumph: warmhearted, self-deprecating, honest—and dazzlingly human.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In Nicholls's (One Day) latest novel, Connie Peterson wakes her husband Douglas in the middle of the night to tell him she may want to end their marriage. The family already has a European trip planned, the last before their son, Albie, leaves their London suburb for college, and Douglas, ever the scientist, hatches a plan to change Connie's mind: he will ensure their trip becomes an exemplar of the happy family they can be. Working against Douglas is the fact that he and his son have suffered a strained relationship from birth, and that Connie, an artist at heart, believes an organic vacation one that evolves from the whims of any given day would be a great improvement over Douglas's strict, pedantic itineraries. Douglas is an amiably bumbling narrator, and Nicholls convincingly infuses his protagonist's voice with the dry wit and charm that have served the author so well in his previous books. This is Nicholls's most ambitious work to date, and his realistically flawed characters are somehow endearing despite the many bruises they inflict upon each other.
