The Award Tally
Ordinary People cover

Ordinary People

Diana Evans

Ordinary People

See the full ranking

Ordinary People was selected by the New Yorker, Financial Times and New Statesman as a Book of the Year. South London, 2008. Two couples find themselves at a moment of reckoning, on the brink of acceptance or revolution. Melissa has a new baby and doesn't want to let it change her but, in the crooked walls of a narrow Victorian terrace, she begins to disappear. Michael, growing daily more accustomed to his commute, still loves Melissa but can't quite get close enough to her to stay faithful. Meanwhile out in the suburbs, Stephanie is happy with Damian and their three children, but the death of Damian's father has thrown him into crisis - or is it something, or someone, else? Are they all just in the wrong place? Are any of them prepared to take the leap? Set against the backdrop of Barack Obama's historic election victory, Ordinary People is an intimate, immersive study of identity and parenthood, sex and grief, friendship and aging, and the fragile architecture of love. With its distinctive prose and irresistible soundtrack, it is the story of our lives, and those moments that threaten to unravel us.

Buy this book at Amazon
Publisher
Chatto & Windus
Year
2018
ISBN-13
9781784742157
Genre
Fiction
Topics
Marriage and relationshipsParenthood and identityGrief and midlife crisis

Awards