The Versions of Us

A #1 UK bestseller, The Versions of Us is a dazzling novel about the ways the smallest decisions give shape to our lives, charting a single relationship through three possible futures.

What if you had said yes? Some moments can change your life forever. Have you ever wondered, what if . . .?

A man is walking down a country lane. A woman, cycling toward him, swerves to avoid a dog. On that moment, their future hinges. There are three possible outcomes, three small decisions that could determine the rest of their life.

Eva and Jim are nineteen and students at Cambridge when their paths first cross in 1958. And then there is David, Eva's then-lover, an ambitious actor who loves Eva deeply. The Versions of Us follows the three different courses their lives could take following this first meeting. Lives filled with love, betrayal, ambition--but through it all is a deep connection that endures whatever fate might throw at them.

The Versions of Us explores the idea that there are moments when our lives might have turned out differently, the tiny factors or decisions that could determine our fate, and the precarious nature of the foundations upon which we build our lives. It is also a story about the nature of love and how it grows, changes, and evolves as we go through the vagaries of life.


About the Author
LAURA BARNETT is a writer, journalist, and theater critic. She has been on the staff at the Guardian and the Daily Telegraph, and is now a freelance arts journalist and features writer working for the Guardian, the Observer, and Time Out London, as well as several other national newspapers and magazines.