Just Like You
Nick Hornby
Narrated By: Ben Bailey Smith, Hattie Ladbury
Duration: 8 hours and 6 minutes
What to expect
Brought to you by Penguin.
'Hornby is the poet of the everyday' Observer
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Lucy married just the sort of man you might expect: a university graduate who runs his own business. Unfortunately he turned out to have serious dependency issues.
Joseph is shaking off the memory of his last date, a girl who ticked all the right boxes and also drove him up the wall.
On an average Saturday morning in a butcher's shop in North London, Lucy and Joseph meet on opposite sides of the counter. She is a teacher and mother of two, with a past she is trying to forget; he is an aspiring DJ with a wide-open future that maybe needs to start becoming more focused. Lucy and Joseph are opposites in almost all ways. Can something life-changing grow from uncommon ground?
Nick Hornby's brilliantly observed, tender and brutally funny new novel gets to the heart of what it means to fall headlong in love with the best possible person - someone who may not be just like you at all.
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'Hornby is a writer who dares to be witty, intelligent and emotionally generous at once' New York Times
'Hornby's prose is artful and effortless, his spiky wit as razored as a number-two cut' Independent
'Hornby writes with a funny, fresh voice which skewers male and female foibles with hilarious accuracy' Guardian
© Nick Hornby 2020 (P) Penguin Audio 2020
Genre
Modern and contemporary fiction, Humorous fiction, Contemporary romance
Listen to a sample
Excellent
Tender and timely
A brilliant read full of his trademark wit and ability to get to the heart of human nature
Well-told, thoughtful, tender and occasionally devastatingly funny love story
Truly funny . . . the novel gallops straight into something that is immensely readable, sharp-eyed and at times hilarious
Frequently funny, consistently engaging ... it has great warmth in its heart
Hornby's hilarious and heart-wrenching new novel explores what it means to be somebody's perfect match, and why this notion of perfect compatibility is an absolute disaster when it comes to love
Hornby has always been a first-rate storyteller and Just Like You - just perfectly put together - sparkles with tip-top dialogue and pin-sharp comic timing
Set in 2016 against the strident backdrop of the Brexit vote, Nick Hornby's warmhearted comedy chronicles the love story between a middle-aged white woman and a young black man, suggesting that difference needn't always be divisive: sometimes it can bring us together
The capable crackle of his dialogue - honed by a string of successful screenwriting projects - propels the domestic drama forward at an easy pace, particularly effective in the voices of the children
The novel explores division and racism and has its share of sharp observations that help illuminate what it means to fall headlong in love with someone who is nothing like you at all
A charming - and sharp - love story about what it means to fall for someone who is your polar opposite
Comedy for our times
Unmistakably of-the-moment. Sharp, charming and upbeat
Nick Hornby writes so well about his characters . . . his most enjoyable book for some years