One life-changing summer, Charlie meets Fran...David Nicholls's highly anticipated new novel, narrated by Rory Kinnear
In 1997, Charlie Lewis is the kind of boy you don't remember in the school photograph. His exams have not gone well. At home he is looking after his father, when surely it should be the other way round, and if he thinks about the future at all, it is with a kind of dread.
Then Fran Fisher bursts into his life and despite himself, Charlie begins to hope.
But if Charlie wants to be with Fran, he must take on a challenge that could lose him the respect of his friends and require him to become a different person. He must join the Company. And if the Company sounds like a cult, the truth is even more appalling.
The price of hope, it seems, is Shakespeare.
Poignant, funny, enchanting, devastating, Sweet Sorrow is a tragicomedy about the rocky path to adulthood and the confusion of family life, a celebration of the reviving power of friendship and that brief, searing explosion of first love that can only be looked at directly after it has burned out.
'Such a beautiful book. Captures perfectly a moment in time we've all experienced.' GRAHAM NORTON
'He's such a genius. His novels are relatable and recognizable, but also surprising, breath-taking and life-enhancing' NINA STIBBE
Douglas Petersen may be mild-mannered, but behind his reserve lies a sense of humor that seduces beautiful Connie into a second date...and eventually into marriage. Now, almost three decades later, they live more or less happily in the London suburbs with their moody seventeen year-old son, Albie. Then Connie tells him she thinks she wants a divorce.
The timing couldn't be worse. Connie has planned a month-long tour of European capitals, a chance to experience the world's greatest works of art as a family, and she can't bring herself to cancel. And maybe going ahead is for the best anyway? Douglas is privately convinced that this landmark trip will rekindle the romance in the marriage, and might even help him to bond with Albie.
Narrated from Douglas's endearingly honest, slyly witty, and at times achingly optimistic point of view, Us is the story of a man trying to rescue his relationship with the woman he loves, and learning how to get closer to a son who's always felt like a stranger.
Douglas Petersen's family is on the brink of dissolution. His marriage of twenty-one years to Connie is almost over. When autumn comes around, their son Albie will leave for college. Connie has decided to leave soon after. But before everything falls apart, there's still the summer holidays to get through - a Grand Tour of Europe's major cities - and over the course of the journey, Douglas devises a plan to win back the love of his wife and repair his troubled relationship with his son.
The Understudy is a scintillating comedy of ambition, celebrity, jealousy and love from the author of the smash hit One Day.
For Josh Harper, being in show business means money, fame, a beautiful wife and a lead role on the London stage. For Stephen C McQueen it means a disastrous career playing passers-by and dead people. Stephen's stuck with an unfortunate name, a hopeless agent, a daughter he barely knows and a job as an understudy to Josh Harper, officially the 12th sexiest man in the world. And when Stephen falls in love with Josh's clever, funny wife Nora, things get even more difficult. But might there yet be a way for Stephen to get his big break....
It's 1988 and Dexter Mayhew and Emma Morley have only just met. But after only one day together, they cannot stop thinking about one another. Over twenty years, snapshots of that relationship are revealed on the same day-July 15th-of each year. Dex and Em face squabbles and fights, hopes and missed opportunities, laughter and tears. And as the true meaning of this one crucial day is revealed, they must come to grips with the nature of love and life itself.
From the Trade Paperback edition.
He is Dexter Mayhew, tall, dark and (she can't deny it) handsome. She is Emma Morley, bottled red hair, wilfully badly dressed, all principles and no action. Could this be the dawn of the rest of their lives? Or are Dex and Em living proof that - despite an unlikely beginning - men and women really can be just good friends?
It is 1985 and Brian Jackson, a working-class kid on full scholarship, has started his first semester at a university. In addition to his anxiety about his humble origins and whether or not he'll fit in, Brian harbors a dark secret: a burning, long-held, lovingly kindled ambition ... He wants to appear on the wildly popular TV quiz show University Challenge. When he finally makes the team and his dream comes true, life seems perfect, especially given his infatuation for a fellow teammate-the beautiful, brainy, and intimidatingly WASPy Alice Harbinson. But just when Brian thinks he has all the answers, he discovers that the question of attraction is the most mind-boggling of all ...
Steve C. McQueen's only screen credits are playing dead bodies on cop and doctor shows, and now he's paying the rent by understudying movie sex symbol Josh Harper, who's trying to gain dramatic credibility in a West End play. If only Josh would miss a performance, Stephen could get his big break, prove his talent, and redeem himself in the eyes of his disapproving ex-wife and their precocious seven-year-old daughter. Stephen gets his chance when he stumbles on a secret that puts Josh in his debt. It's an extremely sticky situation, made all the stickier by Stephen's growing relationship with Josh's wife. Stephen is about to discover how good an actor he really is.
