Good Material

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

About the Author :
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.

Review :
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 Brilliantly observed … Beautifully written, pacy and excellent on rejection, friendship and letting go. Fabulous Laugh-out-loud dialogue on every page ... No-one has a firmer grasp on the themes she explores. Good material, indeed Funny, sad and true; a book she has clearly poured her soul into ... Cements her status as a fiction heavyweight This is the greatest. You’ll cry and laugh. I read it through the night. And I never, ever avoid sleep It's so good. I loved it Leaves you heartsore but happier. Irresistible Made me laugh while punching me in the gut. Loved this book Sharply written and acutely observed ... A beautifully nuanced portrayal of modern love that will have you racing to the last page 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 WONDERFUL ... Shot through with Dolly's characteristic emotional intelligence ... Very funny ... Such a pleasure to read. I devoured it ... I award it 13/10 on my QWJ scale (stands for Queasy With Jealousy that I didn't write it) I adored it! I ... Dolly is THE comic writer of our generation. This feels like her most ambitious book yet, and it delivers on every single page. She uses humour so brilliantly to underpin the quiet roar of romantic despair - this book is raw, smart and human. This makes me believe Dolly knows everything there is to know about love. Dolly Alderton just gets better and better. Good Material is both heartbreaking and hilarious with an ending that has you holding your breath. With the wit of Nick Hornby and the emotional scalpel of Nora Ephron, Alderton is one of our greats and this is sure to be an absolute classic A relatable, laugh-out-loud story of a thirtysomething failed comedian struggling with a break-up Good Material combines Alderton’s wit and eye for detail with a beautiful depth of emotion Genuinely laugh-out-loud funny – with characters straight out of a Richard Curtis film – whipsmart dialogue and relatable millennial themes (Alderton’s forte) mean there’s never a dull moment ... Thought-provoking and wise The author of Everything I Know About Love nails the zeitgeist with a witty, relatable and acutely insightful page-turner about the trails and tribulations of the lovelorn Dolly Alderton is the Adele of writing Witty, warm and well-observed A funny, tender novel about human relationships. By turns, laugh-out-loud, eye-roll relatable, and 'stop you in your tracks' heart-wrench. A thoroughly modern romantic masterpiece. Highly relatable for millennials navigating dating in London, and hugely insightful for those generations wanting to understand them. Packed with sharp observations and wisdom. A triumph Alderton entertains with observational quips about thirtysomething life ... There's a Hornby-esque charm to her well-meaning characters and their relatable dramas The bestselling author brings her warmth, emotional intelligence and wry observation to bear on her second novel ... Refreshing Alderton is perceptive about how men deal (badly) with emotional pain Relatable, funny and refreshing [A] book to be devoured, adored, underlined, and passed on (but only to the friends you know will give it back) ... [Alderton] proves herself once again as having both a deep understanding of the intricacies of relationships and the ability to articulate it better than the majority of us ever could ...Good Material showcases Alderton’s knack for rich characterisation and zippy dialogue like never before ... Genuinely funny – if only more books made you laugh as much as this All of Alderton's considerable gifts as a writer are on display here: her wit, her ability to capture exchanges that feel real, and her skilful characterisation ... Alderton's work truly shines when she writes about friendship With distinct notes of Helen Fielding, Richard Curtis and Nick Hornby ... Warm and generous ... A writer very much in control of her material Alderton is excellent at fusing poignant tenderness with wry observations about modern life, and that talent is on full display here. Good Material is a highly enjoyable exploration of the messy, non-binary nature of many break-ups, and how two people can simply make a terrible couple ... If you're on the hunt for a readable romcom to inhale in a few sittings, this is very good material Funny, tender and astute on heartbreak This is Dolly Alderton's best book yet ... Alderton is a great social chronicler: her observations here about thirty-something friendship and the differences (or not) between millennials and Gen Z feel particularly true. But most crucially, this is a tender, bittersweet portrait of the addictive fug of longterm monogamy – and the crushing pain when it ends Brilliantly observed ... addictive Comical yet warming A brilliantly observed portrait of a break-up, which examines how miserable it is to become obsessed with the unknown reasons a relationship has ended. Andy can’t understand why Jen no longer wants to be with him. The more he thinks about it the madder he feels but he can’t stop. Addictive I’ve already bought several copies of Dolly Alderton’s Good Material for the men and women in my life, and I will continue the rampage through the festive season. It’s the perfect blend of easy to read, funny and extremely astute Failing stand-up comedian Andy is devastated when his girlfriend Jen breaks up with him out of the blue. Alderton explores the trials and tribulations of finding yourself unexpectedly single in your mid-30s in a novel as witty as it is perceptive The most book-based fun I had this year ... It’s the most I’ve laughed while reading about heartbreak since Nick Hornby’s High Fidelity. A complete delight Funny – of course it’s funny – but also smart, insightful and sincere about heartbreak Like Nora Ephron, with a British twist … Delivers the most delightful aspects of classic romantic comedy—snappy dialogue, realistic relationship dynamics, humorous meet-cutes and misunderstandings—and leaves behind the clichéd gender roles and traditional marriage plot Some writers suffer from second-novel syndrome, but not Dolly Alderton ... Genuinely laugh-out-loud funny – with characters straight out of a Richard Curtis film ... Thought-provoking and wise. A moving break-up story that everyone who has ever been dumped will relate to A bittersweet comedy of modern love No one writes about relationships quite like [Dolly Alderton]…This novel is filled with shrewd observations about friendship, ageing and lost love, but also happens to be laugh-out-loud funny