Dolly Alderton

INSTANT INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER | A NEW YORK TIMES TOP 10 BEST BOOK OF 2024 | A VOGUE BEST BOOK OF 2024 | AN INDIGO BEST FICTION BOOK OF 2024 | TODAY SHOW #READWITHJENNA BOOK CLUB PICK From the New York Times best-selling author of Ghosts and Everything I Know About Love: a story of heartbreak and friendship and how to survive both "One of the foremost 'it' writers of our time. . . . Whatever ails you, Alderton can fix it with her intimate wisdom. . . . There is no writer quite like Dolly Alderton working today." —Lisa Taddeo, #1 New York Times best-selling author of Three Women Andy loves Jen. Jen loved Andy. And he can't work out why she stopped. Now he is . . . Without a home Waiting for his stand-up career to take off Wondering why everyone else around him seems to have grown up while he wasn't looking Set adrift on the sea of heartbreak, Andy clings to the idea of solving the puzzle of his ruined relationship. Because if he can find the answer to that, then maybe Jen can find her way back to him. But Andy still has a lot to learn, not least his ex-girlfriend's side of the story . . . In this sharply funny and exquisitely relatable account of romantic disaster and friendship, Dolly Alderton offers up a love story with two endings, demonstrating once again why she is one of the most exciting writers today and the true voice of a generation.

A novel

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Emma Hak-Kovacs

We shifted from over familiarity to inquisitiveness from sentence to sentence; alternating from feeling like old friends to strangers. We gave too much information about ourselves, then we pulled back. We got a kick out of the novelty of each other.

“Getting dumped is never dumped. really about getting dumped.”

“lt's about every rejection you've ever experienced in your entire life. It's about the kids at school who called you names. And the parent who never came back. And the girls who wouldn't dance with you at the disco. And the school girlfriend who wanted to be single when she went to uni. And any criticism at work. When someone says they don't want to be with you, you feel the pain of every single one of those times in life where you felt like you weren't good enough. You live through all of it again.”

“You don't let go once. That's your first mistake. You say goodbye over a lifetime. You might not have thought about her for ten years, then you'll hear a song or you'll walk past somewhere you once went together - something will come to the surface that you'd totally forgotten about. And you say another goodbye. You have to be prepared to let go and let go and let go a thousand times.”

“Everything you want to do in your life, you can do without a man, Jen.”

“Jesus fucking Christ, don't have a kid or get married because you're worried about being alone,” she said, rubbing my back. I sat upright in my chair and she held me by my shoulders. “Be alone, Jen. You know how to be alone without being lonely. Do you know how rare that is? Do you know how much I wish I could do that? It's a wonderful thing you've got going on there.“

Manuela Miksa

I’m an artist, this is what we do. We overanalyse. We masticate our misery until it's pulverized enough to swallow. 

yearner.

There are so many ahead of me that I haven't even thought of yet. I've been so busy mourning Jen, I'd forgotten I'd have to mourn us four too. 

You don't let go once. That's your first mistake. You say goodbye over a lifetime. You might not have thought about her for ten years, then youll hear a Song or you'll walk past somewhere you once went together - something will come to the surface that you'd totally forgotten about. And you say another goodbye. You have to be prepared to let go and let go and let go a thousand times. 

I'm sorry that I loved you so much more than I liked myself, that must have been a lot to carry. I'm sorry I didn't take care of you the way you took care of me. And I'm sorry I didn't take care of myself, either. I need to work on it. I'm pleased that our break-up taught me that. I'm sorry I went so mental. I love you. I always will. I'm glad we met.

Lotte Tielemans

‘Life is a bit more difficult for women. More difficult than it is for us, I mean. And you don’t need to ask them to explain why or understand at all. You just need to be nice to them.’ He looks up at me nervously. ‘ Do you understand what I’m saying?’

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