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  • Published: 6 August 2024
  • ISBN: 9780241688151
  • Imprint: Michael Joseph
  • Format: Trade Paperback
  • Pages: 432
  • RRP: $38.00

Slow Dance




Rainbow Rowell is back with her first adult novel in ten years in this uplifting novel about star-crossed lovers and the power of second chances

Everybody thought Shiloh and Cary would end up together – everybody but Shiloh and Cary.

Slow Dance follows these star-crossed best friends from their inseparable teen years on the wrong side of the tracks to their far-flung adulthoods – through her marriage and motherhood and his time in the Navy – as they try to work out what they’re actually supposed to be to each other.

Told with Rowell’s trademark sensitivity and abundant wit, Slow Dance is a big, beaming power ballad of a novel about a love so true, it refuses to be forgotten.

  • Published: 6 August 2024
  • ISBN: 9780241688151
  • Imprint: Michael Joseph
  • Format: Trade Paperback
  • Pages: 432
  • RRP: $38.00

About the author

Rainbow Rowell

The New York Times once called Rainbow Rowell “talented enough to be uncategorizable.” She writes novels, comics, short stories . . . She’s a #1 New York Times bestseller several times over, wrote an Indies Choice Book of the Year, and is a three-time Goodreads Choice Award winner. The thread that runs through all Rowell’s work is her sunlit, knife-sharp empathy and unflagging sense of humor. She writes about life – and usually love – in a way that feels painfully, wonderfully real. Visit rainbowrowell.com to learn more.

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Praise for Slow Dance

‘A powerful and poignant tale of first love . . . Rich, real, and emotionally raw, this satisfying contemporary is sure to impress’

Publishers Weekly

Who can deny the absolute, dizzy pleasure of loving a novel so much that you cannot bear to put it down, that you want to do nothing but keep flipping pages, that you want to immerse yourself fully and not come up for air until you are finished. I read Slow Dance in just that way, breathless and weeping. There is no one better than Rainbow at creating flawed, deeply human people. I loved every page of Slow Dance, a book that is romantic to its core, and as funny and smart as its wonderful characters. I will miss being in this world.

Emma Straub

Deeply human, profoundly romantic. Rowell tackles the challenges of love lost and rediscovered with nuance and candor. She will break your heart and you’ll thank her for it

Leigh Bardugo

'A will-they, won't-they second chance romance for the ages, this one is poised to be one of summer's breakout hits'

People

Praise for Rainbow Rowell

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Reminded me not just what it's like to be young and in love with a girl, but also what it's like to be young and in love with a book

John Green

A breathless, achingly good read about love and outsiders

Stephanie Perkins

This sexy, smart, tender romance thrums with punk rock and true love. Teen readers--not to mention their Gen X parents--will swoon

Gayle Foreman

Sweet, gritty and affecting...an unforgettable story about two misfits in love

Courtney Summers

Rowell shows us the beauty in the broken

Stewart Lewis

Reading [Rainbow Rowell's] work feels like listening to your hilariously insightful best friend tell her best stories

Library Journal

Rowell is, as always, a fluent and enjoyable writer--the pages whip by

Publishers Weekly

Keen psychological insight and irrepressible humor

Time

The dialogue flows naturally; it's zippy, funny, and fresh

Boston Globe

Rowell is talented enough to be uncategorizable

New York Times

A joy from sentence to sentence, and on that intimate level there's absolutely nothing unoriginal or clichéd in the way Rowell thinks. Her work is dense with moments of sharp observation...and humor

Chicago Tribune

Cracking, laugh-out-loud dialogue, characters that feel painfully real

Jodi Picoult

If you, like me, think thirty-somethings methodically working through their issues is very hot, Slow Dance is the book for you. The people in it feel like people you know or maybe even people you’ve been. Slow Dance is sexy, sweet, wise, and nostalgic—Jane Austen’s Persuasion for our times

Gabrielle Zevin

Rainbow Rowell has an incredible ability to hide an emotional wallop in the middle of a light and romantic story

Cosmopolitan

Rainbow writes such complicated, quirky characters - it's a great one

Today Show

This slow-burn romance follows Shiloh and Cary, best friends who fell in love in their late teens, then split. In their 30s, they find themselves drawn together again, but will their history of misunderstandings get in the way? I loved this for its realism and the flawed, complicated characters.

Good Housekeeping

A beautiful 'will they, won't they' love story from the author of Eleanor & Park. . . . I loved these characters and the realness of their story

Prima

Rainbow Rowell returns with a gorgeous, slow-burn second-chance love story . . . Raw, real and romantic, this got me right in the feels

Red

If you adored One Day, make this your next read

Sun

A gorgeous and warm will they, won't they story

Bella

Rowell's signature warmth and authenticity shine through, with its heartfelt narrative and relatable characters . . . brimming with hope.

Glamour - Best New Books August