Five Days Apart: A Novel

by Chris Binchy

Overview

In bestselling Irish author Chris Binchy’s first U.S. publication, a lifelong Dublin friendship is strained to breaking when two young men fall in love with the same unforgettable woman. The Irish Independent Review has called Binchy’s writing “wide-ranging, complex, profound, and very satisfying,” and this classic tale of friendship and romance is a perfect showcase of his formidable talent.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780061704369
Publisher:	HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date:	08/16/2011
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	5.31(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.61(d)

About the Author

Chris Binchy is the author of People Like Us, Open-handed, and The Very Man, which was short-listed for the Irish Novel of the Year Award. He lives in Dublin, Ireland.

Editorial Reviews

Binchy writes with a slow-burning intensity about social isolation and loneliness, workplace politics, and romantic triangles.

Booklist

Confident and handsome, Alex is everything David is not. He is also David's oldest, closest friend. David loves Camille. After David asks Alex to set him up with Camille, she falls for Alex. Using this classic romantic conundrum as the premise for his fifth novel, Binchy creates an unforgettable and troubling story about loyalty, betrayal, and the social and emotional imperatives of self-interest. Narrated by the staid, passive David, the story chronicles the development and demise of a friendship shared by three imperfect people struggling to put their care for one another before their individual desires. In the end, readers are left wondering who's happy and at what price. VERDICT Binchy is a master of realistic dialog and characterization, both of which are on dazzling display in this novel. Critics often aptly compare him to Nick Hornby, though Five Days Apart also calls to mind great early social comedies by Kingsley Amis and Roger Longrigg.—J. Greg Matthews, Washington State Univ. Libs., Pullman

Library Journal

Irish novelist Binchy's third novel (Open-Handed, 2008, etc.)-and American debut-is a lusterless present-day version of a Cyrano de Bergerac-like love triangle involving a tongue-tied man, a pretty woman and the friend and lady's man the shy guy employs, disastrously, to help win over his beloved. This book by the nephew of Maeve Binchy opens at a beer-soaked party. David, a stolid and decent guy who's hopelessly unsmooth, is instantly smitten with Camilla, but he finds himself dumbstruck as usual ("Oh," he manages to say, and then she's gone). So David enlists the help of glib, confident Alex, a lifelong pal who will, David imagines, be his conduit and spokesman, and he goes to chat her up. Soon Alex and Camilla are a couple, and David feels left out and aggrieved. He hurls himself back into his studies, finishes school with distinction, drifts away from Alex and Camilla and finds success in high finance. But still he can't purge the romantic vision of Camilla from his mind, and he re-engages with the couple, spending evenings with them. He's biding his time, only half-conscious of the fact, but Alex's attachment to Camilla proves deeper and more enduring than David had imagined it could be, based on track record. Eventually, when Alex seems at last to grow more disaffected and unreliable, David-his confidence growing with his worldly successes-decides the time has come to quit being the emasculated third wheel, the benign, taken-for-granted friend. He makes his move and reaps the consequences, both good and bad. A convincing but plodding and predictable portrait of romantic awkwardness.

Kirkus Reviews

Read More