Us by David Nicholls

“Of course, after nearly a quarter of a century, the questions about our distant pasts have all been posed and we’re left with ‘how was your day?’ and ‘when will you be home?’ and ‘have you put the bins out?’ Our biographies involve each other so intrinsically now that we’re both on nearly every page. We know the answers because we were there, and so curiosity becomes hard to maintain; replaced, I suppose, by nostalgia.”

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 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. 

I thought this was actually a pretty traumatic story. I'm so used to reading how couples meet and fall in love, but to have that side-by-side with the unravelling of that same relationship is just brutal!

It all unravelled in a very clever way. Each character was so relatable that I felt my allegiance shifting each time another clue to the demise of this relationship developed. It seems so obvious that Connie and Douglas are not right for each other, but that didn't mean I wasn't still hoping that they'd somehow work it out and their holiday would magically fix everything.

I give the story 4 stars, but the writing deserved 5 stars.

Read my review on Goodreads