Ordinary People
Diana Evans
(Author)
Description
Hailed as "one of the most thrilling writers at work today" (Huffington Post), Diana Evans reaches new heights with her searing depiction of two couples struggling through a year of marital crisis. In a crooked house in South London, Melissa feels increasingly that she's defined solely by motherhood, while Michael mourns the former thrill of their romance. In the suburbs, Stephanie's aspirations for bliss on the commuter belt, coupled with her white middle-class upbringing, compound Damian's itch for a bigger life catalyzed by the death of his activist father. Longtime friends from the years when passion seemed permanent, the couples have stayed in touch, gathering for births and anniversaries, bonding over discussions of politics, race, and art. But as bonds fray, the lines once clearly marked by wedding bands aren't so simply defined. Ordinary People is a moving examination of identity and parenthood, sex and grief, and the fragile architecture of love.
Product Details
Price
$26.95
$25.06
Publisher
Liveright Publishing Corporation
Publish Date
September 11, 2018
Pages
320
Dimensions
6.3 X 9.6 X 1.2 inches | 1.2 pounds
Language
English
Type
Hardcover
EAN/UPC
9781631494819
BISAC Categories:
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About the Author
DIANA EVANS is a British author of Nigerian and English descent. Her bestselling novel, 26a, won the inaugural Orange Award for New Writers and the British Book Awards deciBel Writer of the Year prize. It was also shortlisted for the Whitbread First Novel, the Guardian First Book, the Commonwealth Best First Book and the Times/Southbank Show Breakthrough awards, and longlisted for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. Her second novel, The Wonder, is currently under option for TV dramatization. She is a former dancer, and as a journalist and critic has contributed to Marie Claire, TheIndependent, The Guardian, the Observer, The Times, The Telegraph, Financial Times and Harper's Bazaar, among others. Ordinary People is her third novel. She lives in London.
Reviews
Diana Evans has masterfully crafted a beautiful, nuanced story about love, loss, and redemption. With compelling prose and an uncanny insight into the questions life throw at us as human beings, she has established herself as a voice to behold.--Nicole Dennis-Benn, author of Here Comes the Sun
Diana Evans is a lyrical and glorious writer; a precise poet of the human heart.--Naomi Alderman, author of The Power
That rarest thing: a literary novel about real, recognizable human beings--a poignant portrait of middle life in London's middle class. Evans has given us four thirtysomething characters so perfectly drawn that they seem to come from a brilliant Netflix dramedy, but has rendered them with a classical prose so confident that it seems to come from a 19th century novel. Beach reading for the thinking beachgoer: as intelligent and insightful as it is hilariously entertaining.--Taiye Selasi, author of Ghana Must Go
A portrait of a relationship on the brink set in Great Recession-era London.... Balancing dry humor, wit, and empathy, Evans expertly delineates her main characters' frustrations.... Evans frankly and unflinchingly depicts a romance overwhelmed by the ennui of everyday life.--Kirkus Reviews
Deep and addictive.... Evans zooms out to build her characters' culturally rich backstories as they struggle to recognize their older selves and the relationships that have aged along with them. A probing, entertaining, and self-affirming novel of men and women getting relatably lost in the crises and hauntings of early midlife.--Annie Bostrom, Booklist [Starred Review]
Epic... Evans' exuberant prose, which bursts at the seams with description, is the real star of this book.--Refinery29, "The Books of September 2018 We Can't Wait to Read"
Evans' novel explores the fault lines that can run through a marriage, and unpacks the intersection of race, gender, and politics with something as profoundly intimate as marriage.--Huffington Post, "Fall 2018 Books We Can't Wait to Read"
Evans, the author of two previous books, has earned comparisons to Dickens with her panoramas of a jumbled, multitudinous London, but Tolstoy remains her spirit guide in how he intertwined the public and the private, the momentous and the mundane.... Exceptionally sensitive writing.--Katy Waldman, The New Yorker
Sharp, moving.
Striking.... With penetrating emotional and psychological observations, Evans creates a realistic portrayal of the couples as they struggle to redefine commitment. Readers looking for careful studies of relationship dynamics will find much to contemplate.
Ordinary People sings with every word. The writing is pitch perfect, the underlying politics of race and gender is never heavy handed, and the characterization of south London is enviable. I know these streets and they beat to the music that runs through this book... a lyrical and beautiful story. It's a triumph.--Christie Watson, author of Tiny Sunbirds, Far Away
Diana Evans is a lyrical and glorious writer; a precise poet of the human heart.--Naomi Alderman, author of The Power
That rarest thing: a literary novel about real, recognizable human beings--a poignant portrait of middle life in London's middle class. Evans has given us four thirtysomething characters so perfectly drawn that they seem to come from a brilliant Netflix dramedy, but has rendered them with a classical prose so confident that it seems to come from a 19th century novel. Beach reading for the thinking beachgoer: as intelligent and insightful as it is hilariously entertaining.--Taiye Selasi, author of Ghana Must Go
A portrait of a relationship on the brink set in Great Recession-era London.... Balancing dry humor, wit, and empathy, Evans expertly delineates her main characters' frustrations.... Evans frankly and unflinchingly depicts a romance overwhelmed by the ennui of everyday life.--Kirkus Reviews
Deep and addictive.... Evans zooms out to build her characters' culturally rich backstories as they struggle to recognize their older selves and the relationships that have aged along with them. A probing, entertaining, and self-affirming novel of men and women getting relatably lost in the crises and hauntings of early midlife.--Annie Bostrom, Booklist [Starred Review]
Epic... Evans' exuberant prose, which bursts at the seams with description, is the real star of this book.--Refinery29, "The Books of September 2018 We Can't Wait to Read"
Evans' novel explores the fault lines that can run through a marriage, and unpacks the intersection of race, gender, and politics with something as profoundly intimate as marriage.--Huffington Post, "Fall 2018 Books We Can't Wait to Read"
Evans, the author of two previous books, has earned comparisons to Dickens with her panoramas of a jumbled, multitudinous London, but Tolstoy remains her spirit guide in how he intertwined the public and the private, the momentous and the mundane.... Exceptionally sensitive writing.--Katy Waldman, The New Yorker
Sharp, moving.
Striking.... With penetrating emotional and psychological observations, Evans creates a realistic portrayal of the couples as they struggle to redefine commitment. Readers looking for careful studies of relationship dynamics will find much to contemplate.
Ordinary People sings with every word. The writing is pitch perfect, the underlying politics of race and gender is never heavy handed, and the characterization of south London is enviable. I know these streets and they beat to the music that runs through this book... a lyrical and beautiful story. It's a triumph.--Christie Watson, author of Tiny Sunbirds, Far Away
