David Nicholls: Us (used)

Us is a 2014 novel by English author David Nicholls for whom it won the Specsavers "UK Author of the Year" award. It was also long-listed for the 2014 Man Booker Prize. The BBC screened a four-part TV adapation of the novel, by Nicholls, in 2020, starring Tom Hollander, Saskia Reeves and Tom Taylor. The book begins when Connie, frustrated artist and Douglas Petersen's wife of nearly 25 years tells him that now their son Albie is about to leave home for college, she wants to leave too. Douglas resolves that their last family holiday together, a 'grand tour' of the cultural and artistic gems of Europe will "be the trip of a lifetime, one that will draw the three of them closer, and win the respect of his son. One that will make Connie fall in love with him all over again". The narrative then alternates between the story of the disastrous trip, at the start of which Albie deserts his parents in Amsterdam, and that of Douglas's unlikely courtship and marriage to Connie, contrasting his disciplined scientific life as a biochemist with Connie's spontaneous artistic character.