One Day I Shall Astonish the World
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4.1 • 10 Ratings
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- £5.99
Publisher Description
From the prize-winning author of Reasons to be Cheerful comes a story about the ebb and flow of female friendship over half a lifetime
'I loved it so SO much! Funnier than ever' Marian Keyes
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Susan and Norma have been best friends for years, at first thrust together by circumstance (a job at a haberdashery in 1990s Leicestershire) and then by character (neither inclined to make friends with anyone else).
But now, thirty years later, faced with a husband seeking immortality and Norma out of reach on a wave of professional glory, Susan begins to wonder whether she has made the right choices about life, love, work, and, most importantly, friendship.
This is story of the wonderful and sometimes surprising path of friendship: from its conspiratorial beginnings, along its irritating wrong turns, to its final gratifying destination.
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'A lovingly observed testament to the complexities and profundities of female friendship' Elizabeth Day
'Nina Stibbe is one of our funniest novelists' Daily Telegraph
'Nina Stibbe is not just very funny but absolutely life-affirming' Jenny Colgan
'Her best yet' Kathy Burke
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Nina Stibbe’s ability to craft a distinctive voice for her protagonist is almost uncanny. As One Day I Shall Astonish the World follows Susan from the 1990s all the way to the coronavirus pandemic, countless details—from her pride in being an early adopter of eating yoghurt for its digestive benefits, to the way she assimilates the news of her mercurial best friend Norma’s new husband’s favourite pastime: dogging—paint a wonderfully specific portrait that rings true. The novel encompasses everything from Susan’s days as an English student working a summer job in a haberdashery shop, to marriage, motherhood and professional ambition, but it is the thread of that friendship that Stibbe is most interested in. Though life doesn’t necessarily go as she planned, and Susan’s relationship with Norma is often strained, every trial is depicted with plenty of humour as well as pathos, which will be no surprise to Stibbe’s many fans.
