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The Course of Love
The Course of Love
Apr 20, 2025 10:13 AM

Author:Alain de Botton

The Course of Love

SUNDAY TIMES TOP TEN BESTSELLER

From one of our great thinkers on modern life and the human condition - an unforgettable story of love and marriage from the author of bestselling novel Essays in Love as well as The Consolations of Philosophy, Religion for Atheists and The School of Life

'The Course of Love probes the very heart of marriage, its shifts and squalls, its great adventure, with such forensic tenderness. I laughed a lot, too' Deborah Moggach

Modern love is never easy. Society is obsessed with stories of romance, but what comes after happily ever after?

This is a love story with a difference. From dating to marriage, from having kids to having affairs, it follows the progress of a single ordinary relationship: tender, messy, hilarious, painful, and entirely un-Romantic. It is a love story for the modern world, chronicling the daily intimacies, the blazing rows, the endless tiny gestures that make up a life shared between two people. Moving and deeply insightful, The Course of Love offers us a window into essential truths about the nature of love.

'Engaging, sympathetic, acutely perceptive... There's a refreshing honesty in what de Botton has to say' Guardian

'Anyone who is, has been, or would ever like to be, in a satisfying, successful relationship, would do well to read de Botton' Irish Independent

'He debunks the myth of the happily ever after with a painfully familiar, often hilarious detailing of petty arguments, the occasional extra-marital fling, the moments of loneliness and the declining frequency of sex... It's not only hugely enjoyable but life enhancing too' Daily Mail

Reviews

Publisher's description. Rabih and Kirsten meet, fall in love, get married. Think this is the end of the story? It's only the beginning. With his trademark warmth and wit, Alain de Botton explores modern relationships with a novel that asks what it truly means to love and to be loved.

—— Penguin

He's completely on the money with the minutiae of marital life and every note rings uncomfortably true. The story is told with great wit and affection... de Botton knows his stuff and the book builds into a truly wonderful and positive analysis of a successful lifelong partnership. It should be compulsory reading for anyone contemplating tying the knot.

—— Daily Mail

Engaging, meticulous, acutely perceptive... There's a refreshing honesty in what De Botton has to say

—— Guardian

One passage was so spot-on that I read it aloud to my husband... De Botton appreciates, as few writers do, the miracle and subtlety of the so-called ordinary

—— The Times

Well-observed and imbued with a tenderness that feels authentic and uncynical... It may even save some marriages.

—— Evening Standard

[A] worldly wise romance

—— Mail on Sunday

A complete delight

—— Amy Bloom, author of 'Lucky us'

It made me want to seize the day! Life affirming with a very happy ending.

—— Jo Thomas

I LOVED this book SO MUCH! It by far surpasses me saying that it's my favourite Cathy Bramley...just amazing. I can't tell you how refreshing it was

—— Donna Trinder - Bookish Bits Blog

A joyous thing to read.

—— Press Association

Engaging characters, a stately home and a sweeping romance. This is delightful!

—— Katie Fforde

Set amid the 2008 financial collapse, Pitoniak's assured debut explores the cost of realizing-and misinterpreting-one's dreams . . . Navigating terrain-love and youth, college and city life-that's often oversimplified, Pitoniak eschews cliché for nuanced characterization and sharply observed detail. Evan and Julia ring true as 20-somethings, but Pitoniak's novel also speaks to anyone who has searched among possible futures for the way back to what Julia calls 'the person I had been all along'

—— Publishers Weekly

Pitoniak's well-plotted, character-driven, interior-focused novel captures the knowable angst of the unknowable possibilities of modern young adulthood

—— Booklist

Pitoniak expertly captures both the excitement and the oppressive darkness of being young and at sea in New York City, the unsettlingly thin line between freedom and free fall. Deeply empathetic-and always engaging. A bittersweet coming-of-age drama and a portrait of an era

—— Kirkus

The Futures takes place on the cusp of the 2008 market crash, and so perfectly encapsulates that time of life when everything was just beginning, when you had no idea who you were or where you were going

—— Popsugar

Pitoniak maintains her keen eye for the universal insecurities facing her generation today, from romantic uncertainties and the relative benefits and downsides of hedge fund and nonprofit jobs to the emotional effort it requires to negotiate the predetermined facts of one's upbringing with the person one chooses to become

—— Harper's Bazaar

Pitoniak's debut focuses on that time of life that is at turns both exhilarating and terrifying: right after getting out of college, when you're forced to confront who you are and who you want to be, when you know life is just beginning, but you're also starting to feel like many of your options are fading away

—— Best New Books of 2017 , Nylon

Pitoniak's precise and incisive powers of observation gives us a book with startling grace notes

—— NPR.org

Anna Pitoniak's inspired debut centers on two recent college grads who move to New York City together during the 2008 recession and watch their relationship change drastically

—— Instyle

The One is one of a kind – and singularly good.

—— Barbara Copperthwaite

A fresh, compelling, psychological thriller that will keep you guessing!

—— Mandy Baggot

insanely brilliant

—— Gillian McAllister

pacy, thrilling and very original. The plot is fabulous

—— Askews Newsletter

A page-turning psychological thriller with a difference, this is guaranteed to keep you on the edge of your seat.

—— Irish Examiner
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