Andy – can we try to avoid the hysteria? I know this is awful for you, it’s awful for me too. But people break up all the time.’ Genuinely laugh-out-loud funny – with characters straight out of a Richard Curtis film – whipsmart dialogue and relatable millennial themes (Alderton’s forte) mean there’s never a dull moment ... Thought-provoking and wise The Independent, Best New Books to Read This Autumn Good Material combines Alderton’s wit and eye for detail with a beautiful depth of emotion Woman & Home

There are many reasons, our narrator Andy asserts, that it is good he is no longer with Jen. “Talked too much and too smugly about coming from a big family,” for starters, “as if it was her decision to have three siblings.” Then, there is how she would “always boast about how she’d reject an OBE if it were offered to her” but “would definitely never reject an OBE”. Also: “Can’t drive (childish)”. “Talked at the cinema”. “Was too connected to dogs”. And the big one? “Ruined my life.” Whatever. No point discussing it any further.’ I can’t find my footing in this conversation – I lurch from desperation to indifference. I want her to know how much I love her and I also want her to think that I don’t care about our relationship any more. I don’t know what the desired outcome is. I wish I hadn’t had three beers. ‘I don’t think these phone calls are helping us,’ I say.Because at the beginning I used to delete your number all the time, so I ended up accidentally memorizing it.’ Funny, sad and true; a book she has clearly poured her soul into ... Cements her status as a fiction heavyweight inews, The best new books to read in November 2023 Alderton entertains with observational quips about thirtysomething life ... There's a Hornby-esque charm to her well-meaning characters and their relatable dramas The Observer We agreed I would call at seven but I wait until three minutes past to make a point that she doesn’t get to call the shots any more. I scroll to her name in my phonebook: Jen (Hammersmith). We found it funny - my chosen life partner, reduced to a borough. It’s not funny now it’s lost all its irony. It’s just a fact. I am about to call Jen (Hammersmith), a woman who I would probably never be friends with, who lives in a part of London I would never visit.

This is the greatest. You’ll cry and laugh. I read it through the night. And I never, ever avoid sleep Claudia Winkleman Brilliantly observed … Beautifully written, pacy and excellent on rejection, friendship and letting go. Fabulous Daily Mail In addition to following the progress of Andy’s recovery and meeting some very good characters along the way (Ari and Jane‘s children are hilarious for example), there are some excellent music references, some hair obsessing and hair envy, some other ventures where Andy tries to reinvent his 35-year-old self, with limited success.You’re the only person I can talk to about this stuff,’ I say, revolted by the baldness of my own love. ‘Please make sure Jane doesn’t tell him before I do.’ There’s a distinctly Hornbyesque charm to her well-meaning characters and their relatable dramas. The dialogue is excellent throughout and the prose, consistently solid, sometimes gleams. Here’s Andy recalling the moment Jen kissed him for the first time: “I felt tiny and enormous; like I was her toy and her king.”