Who We Are Now

Who We Are Now
Author: Lauryn Chamberlain
Genres: Contemporary Fiction, Fiction
Publisher: Dutton
Publication Year: 2023
ASIN: B0BLTWBB65
ISBN: 9780593182840

Rachel, Clarissa, Dev, and Nate are best friends, fresh out of college and excited about the dreams and possibilities that life holds for them. The one thing that seems certain is their friendship. But over the years they will each make choices that pull them apart, back together, and apart again, until they ultimately have to decide: are their friendships in the past, or are they for life?

I love a good friends from college story, and this one definitely had its moments. At the same time, I would have liked a few more flashbacks that established the closeness of the characters, beyond their shared college house and parties. This also would have helped with shaping each of their personalities, which felt a bit distant throughout (one of them in particular). I liked this, but I didn't quite get the emotional resonance I look for in a friendship story.

About the Book

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Publisher’s Description

Four friends. Fifteen years. Who We Are Now is a story of Sliding Doors moments, those seemingly small choices of early adulthood that determine the course of our lives.

It is 2006 and Rachel, Clarissa, Dev, and Nate are best friends, seniors on the eve of their college graduation. Their whole lives are before them, at once full of promise and anxiety. Bound to one another as they are, they imagine their closeness will last forever–but things change as they take their first steps away from one another and into adulthood.

Each year is told from one character’s point of view, and in that way, we stride swiftly through their lives. These four friends feel their twenties and thirties flying by, and suddenly small moments fast become regrets or unexpected boons, decisions they’ll spend years wishing they could undo and choices that come to define them. As the foursome endure professional setbacks, deep loss, and creative success, fortunes shift and friendships strain–and it will take a tragic turn of events to bring them together again.

Who We Are Now is a poignant story of epic friendship that jumps boldly through the years, moving at the same unforgiving pace as does that precious, confusing time between college and real life. This novel is perfect for readers who adore tales of friendship, explorations of the second coming of age moment that arrives in our thirties, and fans of Meg Wolitzer’s The Interestings or Dolly Alderton’s Ghosts.

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