The Versions of Us

What if you had said yes . . . ?

Eva and Jim are nineteen, and students at Cambridge, when their paths first cross in 1958. Jim is walking along a lane when a woman approaching him on a bicycle swerves to avoid a dog. What happens next will determine the rest of their lives. We follow three different versions of their future - together, and apart - as their love story takes on different incarnations and twists and turns to the conclusion in the present day.

THE VERSIONS OF US is an outstanding debut novel about the choices we make and the different paths that our lives might follow. What if one small decision could change the rest of your life?

Short-listed for British Book Industry Awards Debut Fiction Book of the Year 2016

“Truly enthralling - the spirit of THE VERSIONS OF US has lingered with me. The way Laura Barnett manages to weave together such detailed and compelling threads is extraordinary and she finds such poignancy in the everyday. I felt drawn in by the stories of Jim and Eva and the novel really got me thinking about all the lucky chances we get to start over, and how we live in a state of constant flux. I simply adored this wonderful novel. - JESSIE BURTON, author of THE MINIATURISTI absolutely loved [THE VERSIONS OF US]. It's so elegantly and beautifully written... I was equally enthralled by each of the three versions...a really wonderful book - Esther Freud, author of Lucky Break and Mr. Mac and MeWhere to begin? With the fluid and effortless prose? The poise and control of the author? The tenderness - but never sentimentality- which permeates the characterization? The cleverness of the plot device? VERSIONS OF US is both brilliant and astonishingly good. - Elizabeth Buchan, best-selling author of Consider the LilyThe girl-meets-boy premise, but played out in three what-if trajectories over 60 years. Eva and Jim's path cross at Cambridge University in 1958 when he bike wobbles to avoid hitting a dog. We follow as their lives spin out in three different ways, and so, inevitably, Sliding Doors comparisons kick in. But this is its own book; deep, sensitive and without a hint of commercial compromise. 'With the tripartite structure I had space to be reflective, quiet and emotional - all the things my favourite writers do' says Laura. Just lovely. - Sainsbury s Magazine”

Truly enthralling - the spirit of THE VERSIONS OF US has lingered with me. The way Laura Barnett manages to weave together such detailed and compelling threads is extraordinary and she finds such poignancy in the everyday. I felt drawn in by the stories of Jim and Eva and the novel really got me thinking about all the lucky chances we get to start over, and how we live in a state of constant flux. I simply adored this wonderful novel. - JESSIE BURTON, author of THE MINIATURIST

I absolutely loved [THE VERSIONS OF US]. It's so elegantly and beautifully written... I was equally enthralled by each of the three versions...a really wonderful book - Esther Freud, author of Lucky Break and Mr. Mac and Me

Where to begin? With the fluid and effortless prose? The poise and control of the author? The tenderness - but never sentimentality- which permeates the characterization? The cleverness of the plot device? VERSIONS OF US is both brilliant and astonishingly good. - Elizabeth Buchan, best-selling author of Consider the Lily

The girl-meets-boy premise, but played out in three what-if trajectories over 60 years. Eva and Jim's path cross at Cambridge University in 1958 when he bike wobbles to avoid hitting a dog. We follow as their lives spin out in three different ways, and so, inevitably, Sliding Doors comparisons kick in. But this is its own book; deep, sensitive and without a hint of commercial compromise. 'With the tripartite structure I had space to be reflective, quiet and emotional - all the things my favourite writers do' says Laura. Just lovely. - Sainsbury s Magazine

Laura Barnett was born in 1982 in south London. She studied Spanish and Italian at Cambridge University, and newspaper journalism at City University, London. As a freelance arts journalist, features writer and theatre critic, Laura has worked for the GUARDIAN, the OBSERVER and the DAILY TELEGRAPH amongst others.

THE VERSIONS OF US, her debut novel, was a no. 1 bestseller and has been translated into 23 languages. She is also the author of the novels GREATEST HITS, GIFTS and THIS BEATING HEART.

What if you had said yes . . . ?Eva and Jim are nineteen, and students at Cambridge, when their paths first cross in 1958. Jim is walking along a lane when a woman approaching him on a bicycle swerves to avoid a dog. What happens next will determine the rest of their lives. We follow three different versions of their future - together, and apart - as their love story takes on different incarnations and twists and turns to the conclusion in the present day. THE VERSIONS OF US is an outstanding debut novel about the choices we make and the different paths that our lives might follow. What if one small decision could change the rest of your life?

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