Writer-to-watch Lauryn Chamberlain's sophmore novel, a paperback original, is a poignant, incisive story about life's "Sliding Doors" moments; it explores the disproportionate impact that the seemingly small choices we make in our youth have on the rest of our lives, jumping boldly through the years in alternating points of view, moving at the same unforgiving pace as do those precious, confusing years between college and real life.
One of Skimm's Books We Couldn't Put Down This Year
Four friends. Fifteen years. Who We Are Now is a story of Sliding Doors moments, those seemingly small choices of early adulthood that determine the course of our lives.
It is 2006 and Rachel, Clarissa, Dev, and Nate are best friends, seniors on the eve of their college graduation. Their whole lives are before them, at once full of promise and anxiety. Bound to one another as they are, they imagine their closeness will last forever-but things change as they take their first steps away from one another and into adulthood.
Each year is told from one character's point of view, and in that way, we stride swiftly through their lives. These four friends feel their twenties and thirties flying by, and suddenly small moments fast become regrets or unexpected boons, decisions they'll spend years wishing they could undo and choices that come to define them. As the foursome endure professional setbacks, deep loss, and creative success, fortunes shift and friendships strain-and it will take a tragic turn of events to bring them together again.
Who We Are Now is a poignant story of epic friendship that jumps boldly through the years, moving at the same unforgiving pace as does that precious, confusing time between college and real life. This novel is perfect for readers who adore tales of friendship, explorations of the second coming of age moment that arrives in our thirties, and fans of Meg Wolitzer's The Interestings or Dolly Alderton's Ghosts.
