Us

Now a PBS Masterpiece television miniseries starring Tom Hollander and Saskia Reeves

Longlisted for the Man Booker Prize

David Nicholls brings the wit and intelligence that graced his enormously popular New York Times bestseller, One Day, to a compellingly human, deftly funny new novel about what holds marriages and families together--and what happens, and what we learn about ourselves, when everything threatens to fall apart.

Douglas Petersen may be mild-mannered, but behind his reserve lies a sense of humor that, against all odds, seduces beautiful Connie into a second date . . . and eventually into marriage. Now, almost three decades after their relationship first blossomed in London, they live more or less happily in the 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. Hoping to encourage her son's artistic interests, 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 with the original plan 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. Us is a moving meditation on the demands of marriage and parenthood, the regrets of abandoning youth for middle age, and the intricate relationship between the heart and the head. And in David Nicholls's gifted hands, Douglas's odyssey brings Europe--from the streets of Amsterdam to the famed museums of Paris, from the cafés of Venice to the beaches of Barcelona--to vivid life just as he experiences a powerful awakening of his own. Will this summer be his last as a husband, or the moment when he turns his marriage, and maybe even his whole life, around?

Binding Type: Hardcover
Publisher: Harper
Published: 10/28/2014
ISBN: 9780062365583
Pages: 396
Weight: 1.26lbs
Size: 9.55h x 6.29w x 1.35d

Review Citations: Library Journal Prepub Alert 06/01/2014 pg. 70
Library Journal 09/15/2014 pg. 69
People Weekly 09/29/2014 pg. 50
Entertainment Weekly 09/05/2014 pg. 70
Booklist 09/15/2014 pg. 29
Kirkus Reviews 10/01/2014
Publishers Weekly 10/06/2014
People Weekly 11/03/2014 pg. 42
Entertainment Weekly 11/07/2014 pg. 61
New Yorker (The) 11/10/2014 pg. 78
Shelf Awareness 11/07/2014
LJ Top 10 Book 12/01/2014 pg. 27
Booklist Editors Choice/Adult 01/01/2015 pg. 11
New York Times Book Review 01/04/2015 pg. 17
Library Journal 06/01/2014