Dolly Alderton

Nina Dean has arrived at her early thirties as a successful food writer with loving friends and family, plus a new home and neighbourhood. When she meets Max, a beguiling romantic hero who tells her on date one that he's going to marry her, it feels like all is going to plan. Everywhere she turns, she is reminded of time passing and opportunities dwindling

Ghosts

THE 2020 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER 'A poignant, funny tale of early-thirties love and loss' Sunday Times __________________________________________________ Nina Dean has arrived at her early thirties as a successful food writer with loving friends and family, plus a new home and neighbourhood. When she meets Max, a beguiling romantic hero who tells her on date one that he's going to marry her, it feels like all is going to plan. A new relationship couldn't have come at a better time - her thirties have not been the liberating, uncomplicated experience she was sold. Everywhere she turns, she is reminded of time passing and opportunities dwindling. Friendships are fading, ex-boyfriends are moving on and, worse, everyone's moving to the suburbs. There's no solace to be found in her family, with a mum who's caught in a baffling mid-life makeover and a beloved dad who is vanishing in slow-motion into dementia. Dolly Alderton's debut novel is funny and tender, filled with whip-smart observations about relationships, family, memory, and how we live now. ____________________________________________________ 'The perfect no-holds-barred modern day rom-com' Stylist 'I loved it - Dolly Alderton has clearly mastered every form of writing. Which is a surprise to nobody' Candice Carty-Williams 'Wise, funny, tender and true, sharply-observed and utterly hilarious. Dolly Alderton's talent is phenomenal' Elizabeth Day 'Smart, caustically witty and achingly sad' Sunday Mirror 'A fascinating, perceptive look at what it means to be a thirty-something woman . . . Ghosts will resonate with so many women' Red, The Best Books to Read this October 'Achingly relatable . . . darkly funny' i 'Really laugh out loud . . . so engaging I can't put it down' Philippa Perry 'I loved it. Had me howling with laughter and recognition!' Bryony Gordon 'Dolly sums up life in your thirties with such wit, warmth and accuracy, you won't want it to end' Heat 'A book so relatable you'll give yourself neck ache nodding in recognition' Grazia

The Top 10 Sunday Times Bestseller

Cara 🤍

Maybe friendship is being the guardian of another person’s hope. Leave it with me and I’ll look after it for a while, if it feels too heavy for now. 

Ruby Emmeline Fisher

Why was a sprinkling of the patriarchy so good when it came to dating? I resented it. It was like good sea salt— just a tiny dash could really bring out the flavour of the date and it was so often delectable.

Lizzy Jensen

Because these men wanted to want something rather than have something. Max wanted to be tortured, he wanted to yearn and chase and dream. He wanted to exist in a liminal state, like everything was just about to begin. He liked contemplating what our relationship might be like, without investing any time or commitment in our relationship. Jethro liked talking about the home he would buy with Lola, but he didn't want to turn up to the viewing. They were like teenage boys in their rooms, coming up with lyrics to write in their notebooks. They weren't ready to be adults, to make any choices, let alone promises. They preferred a relationship to be virtual and speculative, because when it was virtual and speculative, it could be perfect. Their girlfriend didn't have to be human. They didn't have to think about plans or practicalities, they weren't burdened with the concern of another person's happiness. And they could be heroes. They could be gods. It was pathetic.

"Of course that's not what I did. I just changed my mind. People people are allowed to change their minds about things." 

“You know, every time you 'change your mind' in such an extreme way, it takes something from a woman. It's an act of theft. It's not just a theft of her trust, it's a theft of her time. You've  taken things from her, so you could have a fun few months. Can you not see how selfish that is?" 

A sensation rose inside me- one that had been long repressed. Something I should have expressed, fully and freely, when Max first disappeared, but instead I had hidden everywhere else, to be a good girl. I had turned it in on myself, to examine all my possible imperfections. I had let it rise like hot air into my brain to analyse and pathologize needlessly. I had allowed it into my heart and let it melt down into something patient and forgiving. I had distributed this feeling into any part of my body so that it wouldn't escape from my mouth; so that it couldn't catch the air. That way, no one could accuse me of being intense or deluded or crazy. But it was time to breathe it out like fire. I had no interest in retribution, all I wanted was redress. 

“I know that clever women aren’t meant to worry about having a family. And I know I still have time. But I’m scared that if I don’t plan for it, it will never happen.”

He shrugged. “It might not ever happen.”

I found the starkness of this fact strangely comforting No one had ever said it to me before. Everyone had always said, in one way or another, that I could have whatever I wanted. 

His joking words awoke an insatiable craving, deeply embedded desires that were placed inside me without my approval. Who had put them there? Had I inherited it? Was it my mother? Or my grandmother? I hadn't made this choice. I got to choose the num ber of espresso shots in my coffee, the colour of my light switches and the accent and gender of my satnav's voice. I was tirelessly in charge of every single tiny decision I made, every single day. So who had decided I wanted a baby, more than anything, on my behalf ?

You were the one who made it intense. You were the one telling me you wanted to marry me. Or that you couldn't stop thinking about me. You rang me twice a day. You insisted we spent every other night together. I just wanted to hang out and get to know each other. You decided the entire pace of this relationship then you slammed on the brakes when it suited you. It was like I was just a lucky passenger along for the ride.

Ian Brakspear

literature belongs to everyone and that we should never feel intimidated by it.

'Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind, And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind'

It is our imagination that is responsible for love, not the other person'

I loved Nina’s connection comparing the floors of her apartment with each broken heart. The bottom floor housing someone who was dealing with betrayal. The middle floor with disappearance, and the top neighbour grieving the loss of her husband. I could visualize the outside of her building so perfectly, the windows glowing with a snippet into each person’s life. They all shared the same building, all were dealing with heartbreak, but their experience was still their own and different. 

Kassandra Nordeste

I thought of the three flats on top of each other, how they each housed a broken heart. Betrayal, disappearance, grief.

Literature belongs to everyone and that we should never feel intimidated by it

"Do you really want that from these men? Their attention?" 

Loves this comparison to men being children who treat women in their lives as games. I loved when Lola said this is the first generation of men who grew up glued to their PlayStation and Game Boys and weren’t conditioned to develop any sense of honour and duty. That video games replaced parenting. Boys look for fun, complete the fun, and then go to the next level, switch players or try a new game. They need “maximum stimulation.” And this comparison of men being children running around a nursery, picking up and putting down women like they are toys, just completely summarises the dating game and how men always have the upper hand when it comes to relationships and how quickly they move on with their games. It reminds me so much of my earlier years of dating being on Tinder and Hinge. 

I thought about all these men in their thirties — ageing on the outside with receding hairlines and budding haemorrhoids — running around a nursery, picking up and putting down women and wives and babies from an overflowing trunk of toys. 

abi a

"It's like what Joe said in his groom's speech: love is being the guardian of another person's solitude. Maybe friendship is being the guardian of another person's hope. Leave it with me and I'll look after it for a while, if it feels too heavy for now." "I can't do that, you're already carrying yours." "Oh, I've been carrying mine for a decade," she said. "I won't notice if I chuck a bit more in."

"Sort of magic, isn't it? To know that we could meet the most exciting person in the world, but they'd never be able able to recreate the history you and I have. What a unique superpower we have over each other.”

Rebeca Keren Nuñez

Nina y Lola son dos amigas de treinta y pocos: independientes y con éxito profesional, tienen la sensación que se están quedando atrás mientras sus amigas se casan y tienen hijos, pero tampoco quieren perder su libertad ni quedarse con el primer tipo que aparezca.. Cuando Nina conoce a Max a través de una app de citas recupera la confianza en el amor, pero tras unos meses maravillosos, Max desparece de su vida en el momento álgido de su relación. Divertida, tierna y con el punto justo de tristeza, la primera novela de Dolly Alderton brilla por sus observaciones inteligentes sobre el amor, la madurez, la identidad, la familia y los amigos. Una novela sobre el amor en los tiempos del ghosting. ¿Tu vidaa los treinta no es la que imaginaste? Descubre la novela que habla de ti.

Adele Etheridge Woodson

Gespenster

„Gespenster“ ist der erste Roman von Dolly Alderton den ich auf deutsch gelesen habe, und ich glaube man kann Autorin und Übersetzerin fast gleichermaßen zu einem herausragenden Coming of age Roman über das Leben junger erwachsener Frauen und dessen Schwierigkeiten gratulieren. Mir haben bis jetzt alle Alderton Romane sehr gut gefallen, aber dieser hier schildert eine der authentischsten, klügsten, charmantesten und witzigsten Storys die ich je gelesen habe. 

Emma Kim

Of loss. But mostly I felt seen as a Woman. Love how every one of her Friends depicts something different. Also yes men don't grow Up And No you don't need to have children as a women! Nina was super relatable especially her Anger on men. There were also some really great written lines. I love ninas realisation that everyone is longing for childhood and their parents. 

Celina Irena Kuhn

armoni mayes

3.5 stars. I enjoyed the first half of this novel but towards the middle/ending it just seemed to drag on a bit.

it took me forever to get through the beginning but it got really good in the second half

so real and relatable. I love dolly alderton’s writing 

Madilyn Taylor

INTERNATIONAL BEST SELLER • A smart, sexy, laugh-out-loud romantic comedy about ex-boyfriends, imperfect parents, friends with kids, and a man who disappears the moment he says "I love you." “An absolute knock-out. Wickedly funny and, at turns, both cynical and sincere… feels like your very favorite friend.” —Taylor Jenkins Reid, author of Malibu Rising Nina Dean is not especially bothered that she's single. She owns her own apartment, she's about to publish her second book, she has a great relationship with her ex-boyfriend, and enough friends to keep her social calendar full and her hangovers plentiful. And when she downloads a dating app, she does the seemingly impossible: She meets a great guy on her first date. Max is handsome and built like a lumberjack; he has floppy blond hair and a stable job. But more surprising than anything else, Nina and Max have chemistry. Their conversations are witty and ironic, they both hate sports, they dance together like fools, they happily dig deep into the nuances of crappy music, and they create an entire universe of private jokes and chemical bliss. But when Max ghosts her, Nina is forced to deal with everything she's been trying so hard to ignore: her father's Alzheimer's is getting worse, and so is her mother's denial of it; her editor hates her new book idea; and her best friend from childhood is icing her out. Funny, tender, and eminently, movingly relatable, Ghosts is a whip-smart tale of relationships and modern life.

A novel

Ryan 

my sagittarius venus feels offended reading this book

single-handedly made me not want to date men

INTERNATIONAL BEST SELLER - A smart, sexy, laugh-out-loud romantic comedy about ex-boyfriends, imperfect parents, friends with kids, and a man who disappears the moment he says I love you. "An absolute knock-out. Wickedly funny and, at turns, both cynical and sincere ... feels like your very favorite friend." --Taylor Jenkins Reid, author of Daisy Jones & the Six Nina Dean is not especially bothered that she's single. She owns her own apartment, she's about to publish her second book, she has a great relationship with her ex-boyfriend, and enough friends to keep her social calendar full and her hangovers plentiful. And when she downloads a dating app, she does the seemingly impossible: She meets a great guy on her first date. Max is handsome and built like a lumberjack; he has floppy blond hair and a stable job. But more surprising than anything else, Nina and Max have chemistry. Their conversations are witty and ironic, they both hate sports, they dance together like fools, they happily dig deep into the nuances of crappy music, and they create an entire universe of private jokes and chemical bliss. But when Max ghosts her, Nina is forced to deal with everything she's been trying so hard to ignore: her father's Alzheimer's is getting worse, and so is her mother's denial of it; her editor hates her new book idea; and her best friend from childhood is icing her out. Funny, tender, and eminently, movingly relatable, Ghosts is a whip-smart tale of relationships and modern life.

Nikki

Blasted through this on the beach in a day or two. Forgot to pack the final book in the Silo trilogy, so I tried one of Emily's. Nice to read a book rooted in the real world for once

Josh Dawson

Really liked this book and feel like i read it at the perfect time for where i’m at in my own personal life. It’s somewhat sad but it only made the book feel more real and comparative to the real world. 

Tori Albin

Abby Willett

As someone who recently lost their parent to dementia, I was surprised at how much I related to this book. Really emotional but delightful read, especially for those around the age of 30 feeling overwhelmed by adulthood. 

erin alise 

hit the nail on the head about how non committal men can be and how disconnected they usually are in relationships. I love dolly 🤍

Pamela Byrne

Ali Angco

Gia Palamos

Pretty enjoyable and such delicious writing. Watch me drink everything Dolly has written from now on

I would give it a six stars if possible. I fucking love Dolly Alderton and her brain. I fucking loved this book and I will read anything she ever writes ANYTHING

Anushree Taparia

Joana da Silva

I love Dolly Alderton's writing and sense of humor. I didn't really relate to her autobiographical book when I read it, but I swallow everything she writes on her social media. Having said that, I thought I would instantly fall in love with Ghosts. That wasn't the case though. At first, this story felt a little too close to home. The whole 'watching your friends get married', 'being on dating apps wishing for something that isn't there' and 'constantly having friends & family questioning you about when are you going to find a boyfriend' was a too realistic narrative that I didn't want to face on a book because it was already my life. When the ghosting happened to Nina, I could relate deeply to her because god knows I'd already been there. However, the story really took a turn in the second half and made me like these characters and their lives much more than I had up until that point. The jokes are spot on and so are the reflections the main character has. Although this is a fiction work, I really feel like Dolly Alderton put herself in many of the aspects of Nina's life and I couldn't stop imagining Nina as a blonde, even though she's a brunette.

I had to put my big girl brain on to read this 

Eliza adkins 

Shreya Punj

Wow, what a book. Reading Ghosts left me feeling dizzy. I tore through the pages, desperate for Nina to get a happy ending. In the Epilogue Nina didn’t seem happy, but she sure seemed content.

As I hurtle towards thirty, I could relate with all the characters barring the men. I can never relate with men. Nina, Lola, Katherine, Mandy…such strong, vulnerable, wonderful women. 

Alderton’s writing shines when delivering sharp-eyed observations. Her keen insights into heteronormative relationships are delightful, and as a reader I found myself either vigorously nodding my head or chuckling in agreement when presented with one.

Tolles Buch. Ich hatte am Anfang Schwierigkeiten richtig rein zu kommen, aber je mehr man liest, desto vielschichtiger und spannender werden die Charaktere. Ich mag die Ehrlichkeit sehr mit der Situationen oder die Gedanken von Nina geschildert werden und die kleinen Überraschung in der Handlung, die man nicht erwartet hat. Überhaupt nicht so Rom-Com mäßig wie ich dachte und das gefällt mir sehr gut.

Ghosts

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