*SHORTLISTED FOR THE BOLLINGER EVERYMAN WODEHOUSE PRIZE FOR COMIC FICTION 2024*

Every relationship has one beginning. This one has two endings.

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‘Funny – of course it’s funny – but also smart, insightful and sincere about heartbreak' David Nicholls, author of One Day

'A novel to be devoured, adored, underlined ... if only more books made you laugh as much as this' The i

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Andy loves Jen. Jen loved Andy.
And he can't work out why she stopped.

Now he is. . .
1. Without a home
2. Waiting for his stand-up career to take off
3. Wondering why everyone else around him seems to have grown up while he wasn't looking

Set adrift on the sea of heartbreak at a time when everything he thought he knew about women, and flat-sharing, and his friendships has transformed beyond recognition, Andy clings to the idea of solving the puzzle of their broken relationship. Because if he can find the answer to that, then maybe Jen can find her way back to him.

Andy still has a lot to learn, not least his ex-girlfriend's side of the story.

From the bestselling author of Ghosts and Everything I Know About Love: a sharply funny, beautifully observed and exquisitely relatable story of heartbreak and friendship, and how to survive both.

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‘Made me laugh while punching me in the gut. Loved this book’ AISLING BEA

'This is the greatest. You'll cry and laugh. I read it though the night. And I never, ever avoid sleep' CLAUDIA WINKLEMAN

‘I award it 13/10 on my QWJ scale (stands for Queasy With Jealousy that I didn't write it)’ MARIAN KEYES

'The author of Everything I Know About Love nails the zeitgeist with a witty, relatable and acutely insightful page-turner about the trials and tribulations of the lovelorn' Daily Express

Good Material, Instant Sunday Times bestseller, November 2023

If Dolly’s memoir Everything I Know About Love summed up being twentysomething then this, her second novel, is a tender and funny love letter to our tumultuous 30s * Red *
Brilliantly observed … Beautifully written, pacy and excellent on rejection, friendship and letting go. Fabulous * Daily Mail *
Laugh-out-loud dialogue on every page ... No-one has a firmer grasp on the themes she explores. Good material, indeed * Sunday Express *
Funny, sad and true; a book she has clearly poured her soul into ... Cements her status as a fiction heavyweight * inews, The best new books to read in November 2023 *
This is the greatest. You’ll cry and laugh. I read it through the night. And I never, ever avoid sleep * Claudia Winkleman *
It's so good. I loved it * Sharon Horgan *
Leaves you heartsore but happier. Irresistible * Richard E. Grant *
Made me laugh while punching me in the gut. Loved this book * Aisling Bea *
Sharply written and acutely observed ... A beautifully nuanced portrayal of modern love that will have you racing to the last page * Heat *
Have you ever wondered what a lost love was thinking? In this ingeniously constructed and endlessly amusing novel, Dolly Alderton flips the script on everything we think we know about romantic loss, to bring us an unforgettable character on a deeply relatable downward spiral. Wise and relatable and pee-your-pants funny. I cried by page 5. Dolly Alderton is, quite simply, the bard of modern day love * Lena Dunham *

Dolly Alderton is an award-winning author and screenwriter based in London. She is a columnist for the Sunday Times Style magazine and is the former co-host and co-creator of the podcast The High Low. Her first book, Everything I Know About Love, became a top-five Sunday Times bestseller in its first week of publication, won a National Book Award (UK) for Autobiography of the Year and was made into a BBC One TV series. Both of her novels, Ghosts (published 2020) and Good Material (published 2023), were instant Sunday Times bestsellers. Dear Dolly, a collection of her agony aunt columns from the Sunday Times Style magazine, was published in 2022, and was also a Sunday Times bestseller.