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INDUSTRY NEWS David Nicholls talks about Us at the 2014 Cheltenham Literature Festival. Read more
Us - David Nicholls (2014)
Douglas' wife, Connie, informs him in the middle of the night that she's leaving him, when their 17-year-old son Albie heads off to college. But first the family will take their planned trip to Europe together. What Connie sees as a fitting end to their marriage, Douglas hopes will be his chance to win her back. As the Grand Tour kicks off - travelling from Paris to Amsterdam and beyond - the well-developed narrative weaves into the past, revealing that Douglas has always felt out of his league with Connie - a socially awkward biochemist to her free-spirited artist - and has a strained relationship with Albie. It's a funny and moving story about an unravelling relationship built on opposing values, centred around a man cast adrift and facing a lonely future. It did lose me in the middle - sort of the way an endless tour of museums and art galleries would lose me in real life - but Nicholls' superb characterisations and wit pulled me back. But be warned, all you'll want to do for most of the book is knock some sense into Douglas and make him see Connie's a far too self-centred individual for him anyway.
David Nicholls is following up his colossal success with One Day with his latest novel, Us. The summary says: "Douglas Petersen may be mild-mannered, but behind his reserve lies a sense of humour 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. 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's odyssey brings Europe - from the streets of Amsterdam to the famed museums of Paris, from the cafes 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?" Us is out in November 2014.