Fourteen Days
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by Margaret ATwood
Publication date: February 6, 2024
Publisher: Harper
Hardcover: 384 Pages
Publisher Description
Set in a Lower East Side tenement in the early days of the COVID-19 lockdowns, Fourteen Days is an irresistibly propulsive collaborative novel from the Authors Guild, with an unusual twist: each character in this diverse, eccentric cast of New York neighbors has been secretly written by a different, major literary voice—from Margaret Atwood and Celeste Ng to Tommy Orange and John Grisham.
One week into the COVID-19 shutdown, tenants of a Lower East Side apartment building in Manhattan have begun to gather on the rooftop and tell stories. With each passing night, more and more neighbors gather, bringing chairs and milk crates and overturned pails. Gradually the tenants—some of whom have barely spoken to each other—become real neighbors. In this Decameron-like serial novel, general editors Margaret Atwood and Douglas Preston and a star-studded list of contributors create a beautiful ode to the people who couldn’t escape when the pandemic hit. A dazzling, heartwarming, and ultimately surprising narrative, Fourteen Days reveals how beneath the horrible loss and suffering, some communities managed to become stronger.
About the author
Margaret Atwood is the author of more than forty books of fiction, poetry, and critical essays.
Read more about Margaret ON HER WEBSITE
Praise
“An interesting experiment in collective storytelling.” — Literary Hub
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“Proves that even a global pandemic can’t curb creativity …. that the stories we leave behind are what makes us human.” — Associated Press
“These stories introduce a theme of diversity that’s one of the joys of the book. There are ghost stories, a war story, many tales of betrayal and revenge, and a report on Shakespeare’s plague experience by scholar James Shapiro…. A multicultural tribute to the New York lockdown experience….moving and..funny…” — Kirkus Reviews
“…the storytellers are splendidly diverse in race, age, gender, ethnicity, and calling….Putting a bold new twist on the plague novel, this bountiful, unpredictable, witty, and affecting tale-of-tales is made all the more intriguing by the fact that it’s a collaboration by 36 exceptional North American writers….This enthralling novel of many voices and moods dramatizes the transformation of isolation into community via stories and explores a grand spectrum of human experiences.” — Booklist(starred review)
“…beguiling…. fans of literary puzzles will find this worthwhile.” — Publishers Weekly
“An immensely enjoyable product of an immensely unenjoyable time, Fourteen Days is lively, freewheeling and, with its skillfully paced denouement – the super herself’s tale – an impressive achievement.”— The Guardian