Us: A Novel by David Nicholls
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Us: A Novel

by

David Nicholls

(Author)

4

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25,821 ratings


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

“I loved this book. Funny, sad, tender: for anyone who wants to know what happens after the Happy Ever After.” — Jojo Moyes, author of Me Before You

David Nicholls brings the wit and intelligence that graced his New York Times bestseller, One Day, to a compellingly human, deftly funny 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. It 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.

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ISBN-10

0062365592

ISBN-13

978-0062365590

Print length

416 pages

Language

English

Publisher

Harper Paperbacks

Publication date

June 29, 2015

Dimensions

5.31 x 0.67 x 8 inches

Item weight

2.31 pounds


Popular Highlights in this book

  • Light travels differently in a room that contains another person; it reflects and refracts so that even when she was silent or sleeping I knew that she was there.

    Highlighted by 578 Kindle readers

  • But the unrequited love of one’s only living offspring has its own particular slow acid burn.

    Highlighted by 298 Kindle readers

  • I had always been led to believe that ageing was a slow and gradual process, the creep of a glacier. Now I realise that it happens in a rush, like snow falling off a roof.

    Highlighted by 286 Kindle readers


Product details

ASIN :

B00JJV4QZG

File size :

2087 KB

Text-to-speech :

Enabled

Screen reader :

Supported

Enhanced typesetting :

Enabled

X-Ray :

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Word wise :

Enabled


Editorial Reviews

“The Petersen family travels through Europe with more emotional baggage than luggage in Nicholls’s winning follow-up to his 2009 bestseller One Day….Few authors do messed-up relationships better than Nicholls.” — People, Book of the Week

“Nicholls is a deft craftsman, a skilled storyteller and a keen observer of contemporary mores.” — Jay McInerney, New York Times Book Review

“In his latest…Mr. Nicholls again deals with love lost and possibly found, offering an unpredictable (and less grim) ending…. Mr. Nicholls mines the setup for laughs, as he should, but he also provides a poignant story of regret in middle age.” — New York Times

“A great novel...Nicholls is a master of nuanced relationships. He’s also a pro at delivering a tight, clever structural narrative, as he proved in his terrific previous novel One Day.” — Entertainment Weekly

“I loved this book. Funny, sad, tender: for anyone who wants to know what happens after the Happy Ever After.” — Jojo Moyes, author of Me Before You and One Plus One

“Wonderful. A novel that manages to be both truly hilarious and deeply affecting. I loved it.” — S.J. Watson, New York Times bestselling author of Before I Go to Sleep

“Nicholls is a delightfully funny writer…and this over-planned vacation makes ripe material for comedy…Us evolves into a poignant consideration of how a marriage ages, how parents mess up and what survives despite all those challenges.” — Washington Post

“A smartly optimistic romantic comedy that uses angst and humor to illuminate the resilience of the human heart… Part requiem, part reboot, Douglas’s...efforts to preserve his disintegrating family take him on another kind of journey, too, from despair to unexpected joy.” — O Magazine, November 2014

“A thoughtful, funny, authentic story…Pitch-perfect dialogue and seamless action propel the story forward in a way that feels cinematic.…This is the kind of book that reminds us what it means to be alive. How often does a reader get to feel that?” — Good Housekeeping

“But for all of their burdens and battles, Douglas and Connie have moments of real joy in their marriage and while it doesn’t always seem like a pleasure, reading about it sure is.” — Time magazine

“Us is a quick read but a charming one; a portrait of two journeys―one measured in kilometers, the other in the heart.” — Seattle Times

“What happens when domestic bliss becomes rote? Is the past strong enough to bind us together when it happens? Nicholls’ answer is complicated, poignant, wise―and disarmingly human.” — Miami Herald

“It’s a great combination of laughs and heart…Just what you need on these too-short days, no?” — Sophie Kinsella, Redbook

“David Nicholls’s latest… is a smartly optimistic romantic comedy that uses angst and humor to illuminate the resilience of the human heart…. Part requiem, part reboot, Douglas’s endearingly inept efforts to preserve his disintegrating family take him on another kind of journey, too, from despair to unexpected joy.” — Oprah.com

“From the author of One Day―which was infinitely better than the movie―comes a pathos-laden love story about marriage on the brink of collapse.” — Entertainment Weekly, “A Dozen Books We're Dying to Read This Fall.”

“The bestselling author of One Day…is back with another crowd-pleaser, this time about a man trying to save his collapsing marriage and connect with his teenage son during a family tour of Europe.” — People, Best Books of the Fall (2014)

“Complex family drama...perfect read for the holidays!” — Huffington Post, Top 10 Books to Read This Winter

“A smartly optimistic romantic comedy that uses angst and humor to illuminate the resilience of the human heart.” — Oprah.com, “Paperbacks that Dazzle”

“Nicholls is a master of the braided narrative, weaving the past and present to create an intricate whole…. A funny and moving novel.” — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“Nicholls brings his trademark wit and wisdom to this by turns hilarious and heartbreaking examination of a long-term marriage…. This tender novel will further cement Nicholls’ reputation as a master of romantic comedy.” — Booklist (starred review)

“For those who loved One Day, the author’s latest is another heart-grabber about discovering what makes us happy and learning to let go.” — Library Journal (starred review)

“Liked One Day? Then you’ll find this absolutely fabulous.… Very funny and very moving, often at the same time.” — Daily Mail (London)

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Sample

BOOK ONE

the grand tour

part one

ENGLAND

The sweet habit of each other had begun to put lines around her mouth, lines that looked like quotation marks – as if everything she said had been said before.

Lorrie Moore, Agnes of Iowa

1. the burglars

Last summer, a short time before my son was due to leave home for college, my wife woke me in the middle of the night.

At first I thought she was shaking me because of burglars. Since moving to the country my wife had developed a tendency to jerk awake at every creak and groan and rustle. I’d try to reassure her. It’s the radiators, I’d say; it’s the joists contracting or expanding; it’s foxes. Yes, foxes taking the laptop, she’d say, foxes taking the keys to the car, and we’d lie and listen some more. There was always the ‘panic button’ by the side of our bed, but I could never imagine pressing it in case the alarm disturbed someone – say, a burglar for instance.

I am not a particularly courageous man, not physically imposing, but on this particular night I noted the time – a little after four – sighed, yawned and went downstairs. I stepped over our useless dog, padded from room to room, checked windows and doors then climbed the stairs once more.

‘Everything’s fine,’ I said. ‘Probably just air in the water pipes.’

‘What are you talking about?’ said Connie, sitting up now.

‘It’s fine. No sign of burglars.’

‘I didn’t say anything about burglars. I said I think our marriage has run its course. Douglas, I think I want to leave you.’

I sat for a moment on the edge of our bed.

‘Well at least it’s not burglars,’ I said, though neither of us smiled and we did not get back to sleep that night.

2. douglas timothy petersen

Our son Albie would be leaving the family home in October and all too soon afterwards so would my wife. The events seemed so closely linked that I couldn’t help thinking that if Albie had flunked his exams and been obliged to retake, we might have had another good year of marriage.

But before I say any more about this and the other events that took place during that particular summer, I should tell you a little about myself and paint some sort of ‘portrait in words’. It shouldn’t take long. My name is Douglas Petersen and I am fifty-four years old. You see that intriguing final ‘e’ in the Petersen? I’m told it’s the legacy of some Scandinavian heritage, some great-grandfather, though I have never been to and have no interesting stories to tell about Scandinavia. Traditionally, Scandinavians are a fair, handsome, hearty and uninhibited people and I am none of those things. I am English. My parents, both deceased now, raised me in Ipswich; my father a doctor, my mother a teacher of biology. ‘Douglas’ came from her nostalgic affection for Douglas Fairbanks, the Hollywood idol, so there’s another red herring right there. Attempts have been made over the years to refer to me as ‘Doug’ or ‘Dougie’ or ‘Doogie’. My sister, Karen, self-proclaimed possessor of the Petersen’s sole ‘big personality’, calls me ‘D’, ‘Big D’, ‘the D-ster’ or ‘Professor D’ – which, she says, would be my name in prison – but none of these have stuck and I remain Douglas. My middle name, incidentally, is Timothy, but it’s not a name that serves anyone particularly well. Douglas Timothy Petersen. I am, by training, a biochemist.

Appearance. My wife, when we first met and felt compelled to talk constantly about each other’s faces and personalities and what we loved about each other and all of that routine, once told me that I had a ‘perfectly fine face’ and, seeing my disappointment, quickly added that I had ‘really kind eyes’, whatever that meant. And it’s true, I have a perfectly fine face, eyes that may well be ‘kind’ but are also the brownest of browns, a reasonable-sized nose and the kind of smile that causes photographs to be thrown away. What can I add? Once, at a dinner party, the conversation turned to ‘who would play you in the film of your life?’ There was a lot of fun and laughter as comparisons were made to various film stars and television personalities. Connie, my wife, was likened to an obscure European actress, and while she protested – ‘she’s far too glamorous and beautiful’, etc. – I could tell that she was flattered. The game continued, but when it came to my turn a silence fell. Guests sipped their wine and tapped their chins. We all became aware of the background music. It seemed that I resembled no famous or distinctive person in the entire history of the world – meaning, I suppose, that I was either unique or the exact opposite. ‘Who wants cheese?’ said the host, and we moved quickly on to the relative merits of Corsica versus Sardinia, or something or other.

Anyway. I am fifty-four years old – did I say that? – and have one son, Albie, nicknamed ‘Egg’, to whom I am devoted but who sometimes regards me with a pure and concentrated disdain, filling me with so much sadness and regret that I can barely speak.

So it’s a small family, somewhat meagre, and I think we each of us feel sometimes that it is a little too small, and each wish there was someone else there to absorb some of the blows. Connie and I also had a daughter, Jane, but she died soon after she was born.

3. the parabola

There is, I believe, a received notion that, up to a certain point, men get better-looking with age. If so, then I’m beginning my descent of that particular parabola. ‘Moisturise!’ Connie used to say when we first met, but I was no more likely to do this than tattoo my neck and consequently I now have the complexion of Jabba the Hutt. I’ve looked foolish in a T-shirt for some years now but, health-wise, I try to keep in shape. I eat carefully to avoid the fate of my father, who died of a heart attack earlier than seemed right. His heart ‘basically exploded’ said the doctor – with inappropriate relish, I felt – and consequently I jog sporadically and self-consciously, unsure of what to do with my hands. Put them behind my back, perhaps. I used to enjoy playing badminton with Connie, though she had a tendency to giggle and fool about, finding the game ‘a bit silly’. It’s a common prejudice. Badminton lacks the young-executive swagger of squash or the romance of tennis, but it remains the world’s most popular racket sport and its best practitioners are world-class athletes with killer instincts. ‘A shuttlecock can travel at up to 220 miles an hour,’ I’d tell Connie, as she stood doubled over at the net. ‘Stop. Laughing!’ ‘But it’s got feathers,’ she’d say, ‘and I feel embarrassed, swatting at this thing with feathers. It’s like we’re trying to kill this finch,’ and then she’d laugh again.

What else? For my fiftieth birthday Connie bought me a beautiful racing bike that I sometimes ride along the leafy lanes, noting nature’s symphony and imagining what a collision with an HGV would do to my body. For my fifty-first, it was running gear, for my fifty-second, an ear- and nasal-hair trimmer, an object that continues both to appal and fascinate me, snickering away deep in my skull like a tiny lawnmower. The subtext of all these gifts was the same: do not stay still, try not to grow old, don’t take anything for granted.

Nevertheless, there’s no denying it; I am now middle-aged. I sit to put on socks, make a noise when I stand and have developed an unnerving awareness of my prostate gland, like a walnut clenched between my buttocks. I had always been led to believe that ageing was a slow and gradual process, the creep of a glacier. Now I realise that it happens in a rush, like snow falling off a roof.

By contrast, my wife at fifty-two years old seems to me just as attractive as the day I first met her. If I were to say this out loud, she would say, ‘Douglas, that’s just a line. No one prefers wrinkles, no one prefers grey.’ To which I’d reply, ‘But none of this is a surprise. I’ve been expecting to watch you grow older ever since we met. Why should it trouble me? It’s the face itself that I love, not that face at twenty-eight or thirty-four or forty-three. It’s that face.’

Perhaps she would have liked to hear this but I had never got around to saying it out loud. I had always presumed there would be time and now, sitting on the edge of the bed at four a.m., no longer listening out for burglars, it seemed that it might be too late.

‘How long have you—?’

‘A while now.’

‘So when will you—?’

‘I don’t know. Not any time soon, not until after Albie’s left home. After the summer. Autumn, the new year?’

Finally: ‘Can I ask why?’

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About the authors

David Nicholls

David Nicholls

David Nicholls is the bestselling author of Starter for Ten, The Understudy, One Day, Us, Sweet Sorrow and now You Are Here. One Day was published in 2009 to extraordinary critical acclaim: translated into 40 languages, it became a global bestseller, selling millions of copies worldwide. His fourth novel, Us, was longlisted for the Booker Prize for Fiction.

On screen, David has written adaptations of Far from the Madding Crowd, When Did You Last See Your Father? and Great Expectations, as well as of his own novels, Starter for Ten, One Day and Us. His adaptation of Edward St Aubyn's Patrick Melrose, starring Benedict Cumberbatch, was nominated for an Emmy and won him a BAFTA for best writer.

He is also the Executive Producer and a contributing screenwriter on a new Netflix adaptation of One Day. His latest novel, You Are Here, will be published in spring 2024.

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Reviews

Customer reviews

4 out of 5

25,821 global ratings

Kray

Kray

5

The book is great--just missing pages

Reviewed in the United States on May 5, 2024

Verified Purchase

So I'm reading this lovely book by David Nichols, and I get to page 85, and then it's missing pages 86 through 115 and instead has about 50 pages from a completely different book by a different author. So bizarre and frustrating. They are sending a replacement, so hopefully that doesn't have this issue. This is a first.

SallyAnn

SallyAnn

5

The best book I have read for a very long time

Reviewed in the United States on July 21, 2016

Verified Purchase

I did not want this book to ever end. It was beyond glorious! It was so magnificently written that it felt like a movie playing in my head as I read it, it was so vivid. The author expertly brought the story to life; the characters were so complex and fascinating, oscillating between being flawed, lovable, irritating, boring, interesting, kind, mean, funny, intense - and so on. Without exception, each character was very human, very authentic and very credible. The story was sad, happy, poignant, tough - it traversed the gamut of emotions. A very clever, engrossing read, I really cared about.and identified with the characters. 'The Grand Tour' was such a descriptive, evocative gem - I could picture the places the family visited. In my head, I was there with them in Europe! The story was a blend of so much: a love story, family relationships, a travel adventure, the strength and weakness of the human spirit, loss, hope, resilience ... the list goes on. Clever, clever, clever ... the ending was an absolute doozy. Those few words at the end spoke volumes about the essence and character of the protagonist. So much said with so very few words. Utterly, superbly delightful, this was a rich and memorable read.

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4 people found this helpful

MS LA

MS LA

5

You'll love this book.

Reviewed in the United States on March 10, 2015

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Oh joy of joys. Us was a wonderful read. This writer manages to be funny, witty and very serious all at once. His characters are fabulously well-drawn. I really believe all of those characters are real people because they are so rounded. I feel I know them, especially the main character from whose point of view the book is written. Even through his eyes, you feel you fully understand the other characters' points of view - despite the fact that the main character clearly didn't understand them at all! Us is the sort of book you wait for and hope for every time you open a new novel. I can't recommend it highly enough, but of course every time I try to recommend it to someone they say 'Oh, I've already read that - isn't it fantastic?' So, if you haven't read it yet - just go for it. Love a good novel? Then I'm 100% you'll love this book.

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3 people found this helpful

Gadi Wolfsfeld, Author

Gadi Wolfsfeld, Author

4

Good Book but Drags a bit in the Middle

Reviewed in the United States on May 15, 2015

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I really enjoyed this book in the beginning and the end. One evening Douglas’s wife of several decades informs him that she thinks she doesn’t want to be married to him anymore. That she feels the marriage has “run its course”. He is devastated and spends the entire book trying to change her mind during a trip to Europe with their college age son Abie. The writing was good and at several points reminded me of Jonathan Tropper (who is one of my favorite authors). But there are far too many long winded descriptions of European art and sites and this certainly slowed the narrative. I’m sure there are those more sophisticated who enjoyed all of these digressions but for me I found myself skipping over those pages in order to get back to the plot. But overall this is a good "middle-brow" book.

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3 people found this helpful

Thomas Edmund

Thomas Edmund

4

Um

Reviewed in the United States on October 1, 2014

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The story of Us by David Nicholls has been a difficult piece to review.

On one hand the story is well crafted, witty, never a drag, and sure to bring a tear to a few people's eyes. Perhaps most brilliantly, Nicholls captures issues (I hope it is not sexist for me to say particularly for men) that surely resonate for all people (to mention the particular issues would be spoilerly [read the blurb])

On the other hand, I felt like there wasn't much new to this book OK SPOILERS AHEAD (just so can explain better.) Themes of infidelity, difficult family relationships, distance between father and son, it all felt like someone had done it before. I'm sure if you pick this book up and gel with the characters the journey will be good, but nothing much in this book stood out to separate it from any other family crisis drama.

In summary I class this book as Good, but not Classic. There is clearly a considerable amount of talent and skill displayed in Nicholls work, it just feels like Us is a bit of a safe story that could of been something more if only there was a bit more tension or surprise in the tale.

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4 people found this helpful

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