We Should Not Be Friends by Will Schwalbe

£10.99
Out of stock
Product Ref. (e.g. ISBN, SKU)
9781405953269
Published:
08 Feb 2024
Format:
Paperback
Number of pages:
288 pages
Dimensions:
198x129x15mm
Weight:
0.200kgs
Author:
In his last year of university, Will thought he knew everyone he cared to know. A perm-haired, out, gay young man, working at an AIDS helpline in the early days of the crisis, Will found friends and community amongst the theatre students, artists and writers. He also knew who he wanted to avoid: the jocks. Wearing sporty clothes and moving in boisterous packs, the jocks seemed to be a different species entirely, one Will might encounter only at his own peril. All this changed dramatically when Will was brought into a secret society at Yale, aimed to bring together a group of opposites. On his first day, he was faced with Chris Maxey - a physically imposing, loud, star wrestler who seemed to be uncomfortable around Will and embodied everything he disliked and feared. But through months of mandated dinners, and many beers, the two swapped life-stories and forged an unexpected bond that became ballast in each other's lives for forty years.

From the best-selling author of The End of Your Life Book Club comes a warm, funny, irresistible book that follows an improbable and life-changing friendship over the course of forty years.

'Moving. Salted with intelligence and empathy' New York Times Book Review
'A page-turner' New Yorker
'Really shines' San Francisco Chronicle
'Gorgeous' Sebastian Junger

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Imagine a secret society which pairs you with your polar opposite.
You meet regularly.
What would you talk about?
Could you become friends?

Will is bookish, quiet, gay, manning AIDS helplines.
Maxey is loud, a wrestler, a Jock, intent on a military life.
But paired together - over dinner, beers, pool games - they forge an extraordinary and resilient bond.

We Should Not Be Friends is an account of their odd-couple relationship, its ups and downs, twists and turns, the misunderstandings and the trust built over forty turbulent years.

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'A rare view of male friendship . . . succeeds because Maxey comes across as a great character, a warm and devoted friend' NPR

'Schwalbe has an uncanny ability to use his personal experience as a springboard for universal truths' Los Angeles Times

'A charming read with plenty of surprises. Celebrates not only an unlikely friendship, but the strange turns a life can take' Wall Street Journal

'Schwalbe's memoir shines. Written like a true friend' Daily Mail

About the Author: WILL SCHWALBE has worked in publishing (he's now EVP, Editorial Development for Macmillan); digital media, as the founder and CEO of Cookstr.com; and as a journalist, writing for various publications, including The New York Times and the South China Morning Post. He is the author of Books for Living, The End of Your Life Book Club, and coauthor, with David Shipley, of Send: Why People Email So Badly and How to Do It Better.

More Information
Number of pages 288

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