Andy Dawson and Jen Bennett are a seemingly devoted couple in their mid-30s. He’s an affable C-list standup comedian; she’s a high-flying corporate type. They have been together for four years when, after a minibreak to Paris, apropos of nothing – at least as far as Andy is concerned – Jen announces that they need to part ways. With distinct notes of Helen Fielding, Richard Curtis and Nick Hornby, Dolly Alderton’s warm and generous second novel follows Andy’s subsequent tailspin.
This anatomisation of a breakup and its aftermath is daring, not, as one might expect, for Alderton’s decision to channel a male voice for the bulk of the text. The challenge here is the sustained smallness of the canvas she adopts: the intensely limited focus on Andy and his bungled attempts to understand the unexpected shaking of his world, to crawl out of his misery and to get his girl back.
