Naoise Dolan
The Happy Couple
Hachette, 2023
Meet the wedding party:
THE BRIDE AND GROOM
Celine and Luke are meant to get married and live happily ever after. But Celine's more interested in playing the piano, and Luke's a serial cheater.
THE BRIDESMAID
Phoebe, Celine's sister, is meant to finish college and get a real job. Instead she pulls pints, lives with six flatmates, and has no long-term aspirations beyond smoking her millionth cigarette.
THE BEST MAN
Archie, Luke's best friend and ex-boyfriend, is meant to move up the corporate ladder and on from Luke. Yet he stands where he is, admiring the view.
THE GUEST
Vivian, Luke's other best friend and other ex, was meant to put up with Luke's bullshit when they dated. But she didn't. And now she is contented, methodically observing her friends like ants.
As the wedding approaches and these five lives intersect, each character will find themselves looking for a path to their happily ever after - but does it lie at the end of an aisle?
About the Author
Naoise Dolan is an Irish writer born in Dublin. She studied at Trinity College, followed by a master's in Victorian literature at Oxford. She writes fiction, essays, criticism and features for publications including The London Review of Books, The Guardian and Vogue.
Naoise's debut novel EXCITING TIMES was published by W&N in the UK and by Ecco in the US in 2020, and became a Sunday Times bestseller, widely translated and optioned for TV. She has been shortlisted and longlisted for several prizes, including The Women's Prize for Fiction, the Dylan Thomas Prize and The Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award.
