Okay, get out some paper and a pencil. Have it next to you and start reading The Versions of Us by Laura Barnett. You’ll need to make notes for the first quarter of the book, to keep the various characters and stories in order. But then, enough is established to distinguish the stories and you’ll go with it, thinking ‘This is #ALLTHECLEVER’ (I think in hashtags and caps, don’t you?).
“A man is walking down a country lane. A woman, cycling towards him, swerves to avoid a dog. On that moment, their future hinges. There are three possible outcomes, three small decisions that could determine the rest of their life.”
Beginning in Cambridge in 1958, the story of Eva and Jim takes three different paths – they get together; they speak but then go their separate ways; they never meet. The stories then track Eva and Jim’s lives over the following decades.
“And then they walk away together, out of the allotted grooves of their afternoons and into the thickening shadows of evening; into the dim, liminal place where one path is taken, and another missed.”
The idea of a ‘single moment’ is incredibly seductive. For my own part, if I hadn’t sprained my ankle surfing (don’t ask), I wouldn’t have met my husband (I met him at a dance and I couldn’t actually dance because: ankle. He never dances and it was the first time that I had spent a whole night sitting, so really, jumping off my surfboard in stupidly shallow water was a good move).
I did question whether this book would have been better as three separate stories, read one after the other. Then I realised that no, it would not have been better, it would have just been a little easier. Because really, switching between stories allows you to pick up the subtle shifts in Eva and Jim’s emotional states. Helpfully, Barnett leaves the fates of the majority of the peripheral characters the same in each story, which again makes Eva and Jim’s reactions to particular events all the more interesting.
Quite simply, I enjoyed reading this book. If you want deeper thinking, there’s lots to do – the question of fate; self-image; how much our work defines us (or vice-versa), and what events really impact our lives (because it’s not necessarily the big things).
4/5 The story has been described as Sliding Doors meets One Day – that’s accurate (and I couldn’t do better), so if these appeal, I’m quite sure you’ll love The Versions of Us to bits.
I received my copy of The Versions of Us from the publisher, Hachette Australia, via NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.
Jim and Eva picnic with “…wicker baskets filled with potted crab, pork pies, pasties, fat Greek olives and crumbling hunks of feta…”.
Should I add this to MY list? It sounds like my cup of tea?
Yes, you’d really like it (note that I have started using the Books Leanne Would Like tag on some reviews, so now if you click that tag, it will take you to all the books I think you’s like). Also, have you read The Post-Birthday World by Lionel Shriver? That’s similar (and really good).
I just finished this and agree with you how enjoyable it was. The switching between each version was a bit confusing at times so I found I was mentally rehearsing the story arc for each one. “This is version 1 where Eva and Jim marry and …. then XYZ happens” kind of approach. I also stopped trying to keep track of the peripheral characters and whose child was whom. Would it have been better as three stories told in sequence? For me no, it was the weaving together of the alternative lives that made this remarkable.
I also enjoyed the fact that it was a realistic portrayal of life – highs and lows, lots of small events.
In that respect, it was indeed true to life
How interesting — I just finished a different new book in which the storyline splits and follows the two different outcomes of a single decision. I may need to check this one out so I can compare!
This sounds like a very interesting novel, and right up my alley. Those what if stories always get me. After all, I also met my partner after one of those ‘single moments’, so I’ve spent quite a chunk of time thinking what would have happened if things hadn’t gone the way they did. Isn’t it incredible how the little things can be momentous?
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