Set in a Lower East Side tenement in the early days of the COVID-19 lockdowns, Fourteen Days is a surprising and irresistibly propulsive novel with an unusual twist: each character in this diverse, eccentric cast of New York neighbors has been secretly written by a different, major literary voice—from Margaret Atwood and Douglas Preston to Tommy Orange and Celeste Ng.
One week into the COVID-19 shutdown, tenants of a Lower East Side apartment building in Manhattan have begun to gather on the rooftop and tell stories. With each passing night, more and more neighbors gather, bringing chairs and milk crates and overturned pails. Gradually the tenants—some of whom have barely spoken to each other—become real neighbors. In this Decameron-like serial novel, general editor Margaret Atwood, Authors Guild president Douglas Preston, and a star-studded list of contributors create a beautiful ode to the people who couldn’t get away from the city …
Set in a Lower East Side tenement in the early days of the COVID-19 lockdowns, Fourteen Days is a surprising and irresistibly propulsive novel with an unusual twist: each character in this diverse, eccentric cast of New York neighbors has been secretly written by a different, major literary voice—from Margaret Atwood and Douglas Preston to Tommy Orange and Celeste Ng.
One week into the COVID-19 shutdown, tenants of a Lower East Side apartment building in Manhattan have begun to gather on the rooftop and tell stories. With each passing night, more and more neighbors gather, bringing chairs and milk crates and overturned pails. Gradually the tenants—some of whom have barely spoken to each other—become real neighbors. In this Decameron-like serial novel, general editor Margaret Atwood, Authors Guild president Douglas Preston, and a star-studded list of contributors create a beautiful ode to the people who couldn’t get away from the city when the pandemic hit. A dazzling, heartwarming collection, Fourteen Days reveals how beneath the horrible loss and suffering, some communities managed to become stronger.
A nice premise - strangers in lockdown in the same apartment building, gathering on the roof and exchanging stories. Each character written by a different (unknown until the end) author. I'm a huge Margaret Atwood fan so I was really looking forward to this one. But the stories were too disjointed and mostly uninteresting. I only started enjoying it in the last two chapters, where there is a little development in the plot and a twist.
Fourteen Days, edited by Margaret Atwood and Douglas Preston and written by 36 authors under the auspices of the Authors Guild, is the first Covid 19 book I have read. Until now, I haven’t been able to read any of the books I’ve seen reviewed that take place during Covid lockdowns. What got me this time was, first, authors I trust to be thoughtful and original and, second, that this book uses a similar structure to one of the great plague novels of Western history, The Decameron. A Covid book in which the characters escape their circumstances through stories? I can get on board with that...
Read the rest of my review at A Bookish Type. I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley, for review consideration.
