Fourteen Days
By Margaret Atwood and Douglas Preston
Blurb
One week into lockdown, the tenants of a Manhattan apartment building have begun to gather on the rooftop each evening and tell stories in this exciting new twist on the novel.
With each passing night, more and more neighbours gather, bringing chairs and milk crates and overturned buckets. Gradually the tenants – some of whom have barely spoken to each other before now – become real neighbours.
With each character secretly written by a different, major literary voice - from Margaret Atwood to John Grisham and Celeste Ng, Fourteen Days is a heart-warming ode to the power of storytelling and human connection.
Our Review
Fourteen Days is an impressive achievement. It is also unlike any book I have ever read, it has been a few hours since I have finished reading it and I have no room in my head for anything else. The note from the authors describes it best
"...the Italian word 'novella' to describe a story that was not the reworking of a familiar tale, myth or Biblical parable, but something new, fresh, savage, amusing and surprising.
Fourteen Days meets that definition. It is a collaborative novel that is startling and original - you might even call it a literary event."
It is written by thirty-six American and Canadian authors from all different backgrounds and genres but somehow it managed to flow effortlessly. There were some stories I enjoyed more than others but they all belonged.
"Above all, Fourteen Days is a celebration of the power of stories."
I couldn't agree with this more, whatever you are looking for in a story I would argue you can find it in this book.
Fourteen Days is about the occupants of a'decaying' New York building trapped by the Covid-19 pandemic. The primary narrator is the Super of the building who finds herself in possession of a 'bible' left behind by the previous Super. When the other residens of the building start to join her every night on the roof this is when we begin to get to know them all properly.
"It was packed with stories and anecdotes, asides and riddles, factoids and flatulences, and quips.He had given everyone a nickname. They were funny and cryptic at the same time."
The Super is a woman who took on the job because she was desperate for money and to escape from the guilt she felt after having to put her beloved father in a care home due to his advancing dementia. Shortly after taking the job the pandemic hit and she hasn't been able to contact the sub-standard care facility since.Her father was also a Super and she used to come along with him on his jobs when he was younger.
I felt Fourteen Days was incredible at capturing the full range of emotions we all experienced during the course of the pandemics and the lockdown measures. In fact, one of the reasons I found this book to be so hard hitting is because of this very thing.
"Everything happened so quickly. One day the coronavirus was something going on in Wu-who-the-hell-knows-where-han, and the next thing you know, we're in a global pandemic right here in the US of A."
Some parts of the book were harder to read than others, the parts that dealt directly with the traumatic process of a loved one's death during the pandemic, were especially difficult to read.
"This damn coronavirus wasn't just stripping away our ability to be together in life but also to be together at the moment of death, to say our goodbyes.A terrible thought passed through my mind before I could stamp it out: a wish that my father had died before this pandemic hit at all."
Fourteen Days is a rich and colourful novel, one which has introduced me to a whole new range of authors, authors I may never have picked up without this extraordinary book.
Our Final Rating...
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