Synopses & Reviews
From the critically lauded, internationally bestselling author of The Moment comes a profoundly moving novel that explores how a single brief encounter can change one’s life. Laura spends her days looking at other people’s potential calamities. She works in the radiography unit of a small hospital on the Maine coast, bearing constant witness to the fears of patient after frightened patient. In a job where finding nothing is always the best possible outcome, she is well versed in the random injustices of life, a truism that has lately been playing out in her marriage as well. Since being downsized, her husband, Dan, has become withdrawn, his emotional distance gradually corroding their relationship. With a son in college and a daughter soon due to leave home, Laura has begun to fear that the marital sounds of silence will only deepen once the nest is truly empty.
When an opportunity arises to attend a weekend medical conference in Boston, Laura jumps at this respite from home. While checking in, she meets a man as gray and uninspired as her drab hotel room. Richard is an outwardly dull, fiftysomething insurance salesman. But during a chance second encounter, Laura discovers him to be surprisingly complex and thoughtful, someone who, like herself, is grappling with the same big questions about decisions made and the human capacity for self-entrapment. As their conversation deepens and begins to veer into shared confessions, the overwhelming sense of personal and intimate connection arises. A transformative love affair begins. But can this potential, much-longed-for happiness be married to their own difficult personal circumstances? Can they upend their lives and embrace that most loaded of words: change?
A love story as clear-sighted and ruminative as it is affecting, Five Days will have you reflecting about the choices we all make that shape our destinies. Crafted with Kennedy’s trademark evocative prose and pitch-perfect in its depiction of the complex realities of modern life, it is a novel that speaks directly to the many contradictions of the human heart.
Review
“A passionate love story-cum-spy-thriller set amid the secretsand shadows of Cold War era Berlin.” < -="" i="" -=""> - People - < -="" -="">
Review
“An observant, compassionate, and romantic portrait.” < -="" i="" -=""> - Publishers Weekly - < -="" -="">
Review
“Kennedy is astonishing at communicating his characters’ emotional turmoil . . . and he tosses tough ethical questions our way as he ponders the ‘moment’ that could change everything—and the very nature of love.” < -="" i="" -=""> - Library Journal - < -="" -=""> - (starred review)
Review
“Kennedy’s narrative virtuosity drives a story that blends romance and thrills in the right proportion. . . . The sense of place is palpable.” < -="" i="" -=""> - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette - < -="" -="">
Review
“The revelation in the middle is the kind of gut-punch that subverts everything its narrator has found out so far—without destabilizing the rich, dark novel in progress.” < -="" i="" -=""> - The Onion - & - rsquo;s A.V. Club - < -="" -="">
Review
“The denouement will have you feeling about as intense as printed words can make you.” < -="" i="" -=""> - The Times - < -="" -=""> - (UK)
Review
“Douglas Kennedy vividly re-creates the tense atmosphere of a Berlin cut into two by the Wall. As the book moves between times and narrators, we too can marvel at the changes that have taken place since reunification - and understand the long-lasting effects of the evils that were perpetrated by both sides under the old regime.” < -="" i="" -=""> - Historical Novel Society - < -="" -="">
Review
“Leaving the World is a classy page-turner from a novelist who has become a cultural icon in Europe. This is a novel about guilt, uncertainty, redemption, and the fact that we build the roads upon which the accidents of chance occur. Kennedy's characters embark on long, complex, provocative journeys, and their ultimate strength is that—like the writer—they can throw off bright sparks in the dark.” Colum McCann, author of the 2009 National Book Award winner, < i=""> Let the Great World Spin <>
Review
“The tough, bright heroine of Leaving the World barrels ahead through life, with pluck and acerbity, bruises and injustices not always stepping out of her path. In his fast-paced, engrossing novels Douglas Kennedy always has his brilliant finger on the entertaining parts of human sorrow, fury, and narrow escapes. Wonderful.” Lorrie Moore, < i=""> New York Times <> bestselling author of < i=""> A Gate at the Stairs <>
Review
"Smart, stylish, and emotionally penetrating. Kennedy is a master storyteller, who never fails to keep you gripped until the last page." Sarah Dunant, < i=""> New York Times <> bestselling author of < i=""> Sacred Hearts <>
Review
“With Five Days, Douglas Kennedy has crafted a brilliant meditation on regret, fidelity, family, and second chances that will have you breathlessly turning pages to find out what happened in the past and what will happen next. At once heartbreaking and hopeful, it is a bracing new work of fiction by an internationally acclaimed writer at the height of his powers.”
Review
“With Five Days, Douglas Kennedy has crafted a brilliant meditation on regret, fidelity, family, and second chances that will have you breathlessly turning pages to find out what happened in the past and what will happen next. At once heartbreaking and hopeful, it is a bracing new work of fiction by an internationally acclaimed writer at the height of his powers.” < b=""> Will Schwalbe, author of < i=""> The End of Your Life Book Club <> <>
Review
“The prolific Kennedy explores his favored themes of mortality, love, and loss in this fluidly written tale. Deftly depicting how certain choices can unexpectedly narrow a life, instead of expanding it, he has much to say about the nature of happiness, the difficulty of change, and the great divide between obligation and desire.”
Review
“Kennedy ably raises questions about marriage, identity, and happiness.”
Review
“…a fine tale of lives re-examined.”
Review
“A gripping emotional rollercoaster, pressing so many buttons it’s likely to have readers examining their own what-might-have-beens.”
Review
“Five Days delves exquisitely and painfully into how it is that people allow themselves to live lives of such tightly 'limited horizons.'”
Synopsis
From the #1 internationally bestselling author of The Moment comes a remarkable new novel that explores how and why we fall in love.
From the critically lauded, internationally bestselling author of The Moment comes a profoundly moving novel that explores how a single brief encounter can change one's life.
Laura spends her days looking at other people's potential calamities. She works in the radiography unit of a small hospital on the Maine coast, bearing constant witness to the fears of patient after frightened patient. In a job where finding nothing is always the best possible outcome, she is well versed in the random injustices of life, a truism that has lately been playing out in her marriage as well. Since being downsized, her husband, Dan, has become withdrawn, his emotional distance gradually corroding their relationship. With a son in college and a daughter soon due to leave home, Laura has begun to fear that the marital sounds of silence will only deepen once the nest is truly empty.
When an opportunity arises to attend a weekend medical conference in Boston, Laura jumps at this respite from home. While checking in, she meets a man as gray and uninspired as her drab hotel room. Richard is an outwardly dull, fiftysomething insurance salesman. But during a chance second encounter, Laura discovers him to be surprisingly complex and thoughtful, someone who, like herself, is grappling with the same big questions about decisions made and the human capacity for self-entrapment. As their conversation deepens and begins to veer into shared confessions, the overwhelming sense of personal and intimate connection arises. A transformative love affair begins. But can this potential, much-longed-for happiness be married to their own difficult personal circumstances? Can they upend their lives and embrace that most loaded of words: change?
A love story as clear-sighted and ruminative as it is affecting, Five Days will have you reflecting about the choices we all make that shape our destinies. Crafted with Kennedy's trademark evocative prose and pitch-perfect in its depiction of the complex realities of modern life, it is a novel that speaks directly to the many contradictions of the human heart.
Synopsis
From the #1 internationally bestselling author of The Moment comes a remarkable new novel that explores how and why we fall in love.Laura works in a small hospital on the Maine coast, scanning and x-raying many a scared patient. In a job where finding nothing is always the best result, she is well versed in the random unfairness of life, a truism that has started to affect her personally. Her husband Dan has become a stranger since losing his job. With a son in college and a daughter set to leave home, she wonders how the upcoming empty nest will affect the disconnected state of her marriage.
Still, Laura jumps at the opportunity to attend a conference in Boston where she meets a man as grey and uninspired as her drab hotel. His name is Richard. He’s a fifty-something salesman, also from Maine, also in Boston for the weekend. When a chance meeting brings them together again, Laura begins to discover a far more complex and thoughtful man behind the flat façade. Like herself, Richard ponders his own life and wonders if the time has come to choose desire over obligation.
Five Days is a moving love story that will have readers reflecting about the choices made that so shape all our destinies. Featuring Kennedy’s trademark evocative prose and his brilliant ability to delineate life the way it is truly lived today, it is a novel that speaks directly to the many contradictions of the human heart.
About the Author
Douglas Kennedy is the author of eleven previous novels, including the international bestsellers The Moment and Five Days. His work has been translated into twenty-two languages, and in 2007 he received the French decoration of Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. He divides his time between London, New York, and Montreal, and has two children. Find out more at DouglasKennedyNovelist.com.