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  • Published: 13 April 2021
  • ISBN: 9780241983256
  • Imprint: Penguin General UK
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 320
  • RRP: $26.00

Just Like You

Two opposites fall unexpectedly in love in this pin-sharp, brilliantly funny book from the bestselling author of About a Boy




From the million-copy bestselling author comes a brutally funny novel about finding love when you least expect it

Lucy married just the sort of man you might expect: a university graduate who runs his own business. Unfortunately he turned out to have serious dependency issues.

Joseph is shaking off the memory of his last date, a girl who ticked all the right boxes and also drove him up the wall.

On an average Saturday morning in a butcher's shop in North London, Lucy and Joseph meet on opposite sides of the counter. She is a teacher and mother of two, with a past she is trying to forget; he is an aspiring DJ with a wide-open future that maybe needs to start becoming more focused. Lucy and Joseph are opposites in almost all ways. Can something life-changing grow from uncommon ground?

Nick Hornby's brilliantly observed, tender and brutally funny new novel gets to the heart of what it means to fall headlong in love with the best possible person - someone who may not be just like you at all.

  • Published: 13 April 2021
  • ISBN: 9780241983256
  • Imprint: Penguin General UK
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 320
  • RRP: $26.00

About the author

Nick Hornby

Nick Hornby was born in 1957. He is the author of five novels, High Fidelity, About a Boy, How To Be Good, A Long Way Down (shortlisted for the Whitbread Award) and Slam; three works of non-fiction, Fever Pitch (winner of the William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award), 31 Songs (shortlisted for the National Book Critics Circle Award) and The Complete Polysyllabic Spree; and a Pocket Penguin book of short stories, Otherwise Pandemonium.

Nick Hornby lives and works in Highbury, north London.

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Praise for Just Like You

A charming - and sharp - love story about what it means to fall for someone who is your polar opposite

Sunday Telegraph

Hornby has always been a first-rate storyteller and Just Like You - just perfectly put together - sparkles with tip-top dialogue and pin-sharp comic timing

Daily Mail

Frequently funny, consistently engaging ... it has great warmth in its heart

Observer

Hornby's hilarious and heart-wrenching new novel explores what it means to be somebody's perfect match, and why this notion of perfect compatibility is an absolute disaster when it comes to love

Woman and Home, Best Books to Look Forward to this Summer

The novel explores division and racism and has its share of sharp observations that help illuminate what it means to fall headlong in love with someone who is nothing like you at all

Independent

Truly funny . . . the novel gallops straight into something that is immensely readable, sharp-eyed and at times hilarious

Guardian

Comedy for our times

Sunday Times

The capable crackle of his dialogue - honed by a string of successful screenwriting projects - propels the domestic drama forward at an easy pace, particularly effective in the voices of the children

Financial Times

Well-told, thoughtful, tender and occasionally devastatingly funny love story

Scotsman

Excellent

Irish Times

Tender and timely

Good Housekeeping

Unmistakably of-the-moment. Sharp, charming and upbeat

Mail on Sunday

Nick Hornby writes so well about his characters . . . his most enjoyable book for some years

Sunday Express

A brilliant read full of his trademark wit and ability to get to the heart of human nature

The Sun

Set in 2016 against the strident backdrop of the Brexit vote, Nick Hornby's warmhearted comedy chronicles the love story between a middle-aged white woman and a young black man, suggesting that difference needn't always be divisive: sometimes it can bring us together

Daily Mail

Hornby's prose is artful and effortless, his spiky wit as razored as a number-two cut

Independent

Hornby writes with a funny, fresh voice which skewers male and female foibles with hilarious accuracy

Guardian

A fine writer, swift and pointed, with a lighter, more mischievous heart than he lets on, and more sympathy for the devil than he admits to

New York Magazine

Dares to be witty, intelligent and emotionally generous at once

New York Times