Waiting on Wednesday: Us by David Nicholls

Waiting on Wednesday meme

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine where we spotlight upcoming releases that we are anticipating.

FictionUs, David Nicholls, fiction, marriage
Release Date: October 28, 2014
Publisher: Harper
416 Pages
Affiliate Link: Pre-Order from Amazon

I loved Nicholls’ novel, One Day (yes, the one that was made into a movie starring Anne Hathaway), so have had Us on my radar screen for awhile now. And, it’s now been long listed for the Man Booker Prize. Though I usually don’t have good luck with prize  winners (especially the Man Booker for some reason!), I have faith in this one based on Nicholls’ past work!

Plot Summary from Amazon
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?

What book are you waiting for?

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4 Comments

  1. Bookmammal wrote:

    I’m reading an ARC of this right now–so far I’m really enjoying it! I’ll be posting about it in my WWW post tomorrow.

    Posted 10.21.14 Reply
  2. Yup! I wish I had an ARC for this . . . At least I’m first in the queue at my library for it it! But if it takes a while for the library to process it, I may have to just download this baby on my Kindle.

    Posted 10.22.14 Reply
  3. Cleo wrote:

    I’ve heard wonderful things about this book and your comments have just made me want to read it even more!

    Posted 10.22.14 Reply
  4. This will be my next ARC to read and I’m really looking forward to it; can’t wait to see what you think! I absolutely loved One Day so I hope this one is at least as good; sometimes, when I’ve already read a great story by an author, my expectations are a little high. 🙂 Thanks, Sarah!

    Posted 10.24.14 Reply

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