L’invitée surprise

The smash-hit international bestseller A Read With Jenna book club pick Winner of the Goodreads Choice Award for Fiction 'Best read of the year' THE TIMES'Books as fun as this one are few and far between' GUARDIAN'Sharp, funny and a joy to read' OBSERVERPhoebe Stone arrives at a grand beachside hotel in Rhode Island wearing her best dress and least comfortable shoes. Immediately she is mistaken for one of the wedding people - but she's actually the only guest at the Cornwall Inn who isn't here for the big event. When the bride discovers her elaborate destination wedding could be ruined by a divorced and depressed stranger, she is furious. Lila has spent months accounting for every detail and every possible disaster - except for, well, Phoebe . . . Soon, both women find their best-laid plans derailed and an unlikely confidante in one another. Hilarious and moving, The Wedding People is an irresistible novel about love, friendship, dysfunctional families, and the unexpected paths that lead to happiness.'As soon as I'd finished it, I wanted to read it all over again' RED 'Laugh-out-loud funny and surprisingly moving' INDEPENDENT'So funny and romantic . . . A perfect novel' CATHERINE NEWMAN'Glorious . . . made me wish I had written it' JOJO MOYES'Utterly charming . . . I loved it' PANDORA SYKES'One of the few weddings I've attended that I didn't want to end' SAMUEL BURR

FROM THE MILLION-COPY BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF THE WEDDING PEOPLE On a bright summer evening in 1990s Connecticut, fourteen-year-old Emily Vidal stands on her parents' lawn, watching the adults arrive. Her mother is hosting a lavish birthday party for her father, even though he is about to leave her for another woman. Adrift between her feuding parents and eccentric neighbours, Emily is closer than she knows to the choices and heartbreaks that will define her in the years ahead. From the author of the million-copy international bestseller The Wedding People, this ruefully funny debut novel explores love, grief, consequences and the messy business of growing up. THE IRRESISTIBLE DEBUT NOVEL FROM ALISON ESPACH, NOW PUBLISHED IN THE UK FOR THE FIRST TIME. 'Coming-of-age with a quick wit and sharp eye' New York Times'Outstanding. One of the funniest books I've read in a long time' Wall Street Journal'A wry, devastatingly funny coming-of-age tale' Marie Claire

The runaway New York Times bestseller with over one million copies sold<BR>A Today Show #ReadwithJenna Book Club Pick, New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice, and a #1 Indie Next Pick <BR>Named a Best Book of the Year by The Guardian, Time, Chicago Tribune Biblioracle, HuffPost, US Magazine, Elle, Real Simple, and Glamour<BR><BR>A propulsive and uncommonly wise novel about one unexpected wedding guest and the surprising people who help her start anew. <BR><BR>It's a beautiful day in Newport, Rhode Island, when Phoebe Stone arrives at the grand Cornwall Inn wearing a green dress and gold heels, not a bag in sight, alone. She's immediately mistaken by everyone in the lobby for one of the wedding people, but she's actually the only guest at the Cornwall who isn't here for the big event. Phoebe is here because she's dreamed of coming for years-she hoped to shuck oysters and take sunset sails with her husband, only now she's here without him, at rock bottom, and determined to have one last decadent splurge on herself. Meanwhile, the bride has accounted for every detail and every possible disaster the weekend might yield except for, well, Phoebe and Phoebe's plan-which makes it that much more surprising when the two women can't stop confiding in each other.<BR><BR> In turns absurdly funny and devastatingly tender, Alison Espach's The Wedding People is ultimately an incredibly nuanced and resonant look at the winding paths we can take to places we never imagined-and the chance encounters it sometimes takes to reroute us.

Zwei Frauen. Zwei Pläne. Und eine Woche, die alles verändert.Als Phoebe Stone in einem grünen Seidenkleid und goldenen High Heels im prächtigen 'Cornwall Inn' ankommt, wird sie von allen für einen Hochzeitsgast gehalten. Doch sie ist die Einzige, die nicht zum Feiern angereist ist. Seit Jahren hat sie davon geträumt, mit ihrem Mann hierherzukommen. Nun ist sie ohne ihn hier, am Tiefpunkt ihres Lebens, fest entschlossen, sich ein letztes Mal etwas zu gönnen, bevor sie mit allem Schluss macht. Dumm nur, dass sie ausgerechnet der Braut in die Quere kommt. Die hat jedes Detail und jede denkbare Katastrophe sorgfältig einkalkuliert - mit einer Ausnahme: Phoebe und deren Vorhaben. Als sich ihre Wege kreuzen, gerät alles aus dem Takt, und es setzt etwas in Gang, das keine von ihnen erwartet hat.Absurd komisch und tief berührend erzählt Wedding People von den verschlungenen Wegen des Lebens und von den zufälligen Begegnungen, die manchmal nötig sind, um uns auf einen neuen Kurs zu bringen.'Charmant und grandios. Ich wünschte, ich hätte es geschrieben.' JOJO MOYES'Ein pures Vergnügen.' GUARDIAN

The runaway New York Times bestselling Today Show Read With Jenna Book Club Pick, with more than 1.5 million copies sold, about an unexpected wedding guest and the surprising people who help her start anew.<BR><BR>Named a Best Book of the Year by The Guardian, Time, Chicago Tribune, Elle, Real Simple, and Glamour<BR><BR>It's a beautiful day in Newport, Rhode Island, when Phoebe Stone arrives at the grand Cornwall Inn wearing a green dress and gold heels, not a bag in sight, alone. She's immediately mistaken by everyone in the lobby for one of the wedding people, but she's actually the only guest at the Cornwall who isn't here for the big event. Phoebe is here because she's dreamed of coming for years-she hoped to shuck oysters and take sunset sails with her husband, only now she's here without him, at rock bottom, and determined to have one last decadent splurge on herself. Meanwhile, the bride has accounted for every detail and every possible disaster the weekend might yield except for, well, Phoebe and Phoebe's plan-which makes it that much more surprising when the two women can't stop confiding in each other.<BR><BR> In turns absurdly funny and devastatingly tender, Alison Espach's The Wedding People is ultimately an incredibly nuanced and resonant look at the winding paths we can take to places we never imagined-and the chance encounters it sometimes takes to reroute us.

FROM THE MILLION-COPY BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF THE WEDDING PEOPLE <BR>Sally Holt has always been mystified by the things her older sister, Kathy, seems to have been born knowing. Kathy has answers for all of Sally's questions about life, about love and about Billy Barnes, the high school basketball star who runs the refreshment stand at the local pool. Billy's unfathomable, otherworldly cool puts him on a different planet - until a tragedy leaves Sally's life forever intertwined with his. <BR><BR>Opening in the early nineties and charting almost two decades of shared history and missed connections, Notes on Your Sudden Disappearance is a dazzlingly unconventional love story that brims with unexpected moments of joy. <BR><BR>THE ACCLAIMED SECOND NOVEL FROM ALISON ESPACH, NOW PUBLISHED IN THE UK FOR THE FIRST TIME.<BR><BR>'Heartbreaking and funny, often in the same sentence'<BR>Claire Lombardo<BR><BR>'An immensely talented writer . . . deeply moving, always excellent' <BR>Emily St. John Mandel<BR><BR>'Tender, eloquent and wise, this is an intensely beautiful book by a supremely gifted writer' <BR>Karen Thompson Walker<BR><BR>'Unputdownable, insightful, funny and emotionally profound'<BR>Rufi Thorpe<BR><BR>'This is truly a novel like no other' <BR>Joanna Rakoff