I really enjoyed this novel (I read it all in a day!) but I actually think the love story, though it’s a good one, is the least interesting thing about it. The central character, Nick, is richly drawn and I found his relationship with his younger brother Sal and his dad in the absence of their beloved mum a really compelling tale and by far the relationship I was most invested in.

Anna, the other putative main character, is less well fleshed out as she’s primarily seen through Nick’s eyes - I enjoyed their story and I hadn’t read another novel set within the Jehovah’s Witness community so I enjoyed learning more but the frequent time jumps were a bit more confusing than they needed to be. For anyone in their mid to late thirties this will be a really enjoyable nostalgia trip and the comparisons to One Day aren’t undeserved but there’s actually a much more interesting novel within these pages than what is being sold. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

I really enjoyed this book. Anna and Nick spend a summer together working at their local cinema. Anna is a Jehovah's Witness and Nick lost his mother in tragic circumstances when he was younger. They fall in love, Anna is afraid to leave the life she has been brought up in, and Nick lets her go. Years later their paths cross again, but can they ever be happy together? This is a poignant story of love, loss and family relationships. Thanks to NetGalley for a preview copy.
Copied to Goodreads.

This book made me <i><b>feel</b></i> things. It's heartbreaking in the best way, and I didn't want to stop reading once I got going. It is one of those books that sticks with you when you're not actively turning those pages. It deals with all the real life issues we all go through - grief, love, heartache, loneliness, just everything.

I felt so frustrated at Nick, and wanted to give him a good shake to wake him up when he was being an idiot to Anna (which is a lot of the time). His relationship with his brother was so endearing and one of my favourite parts.

The only tiny negative, which I got over once I was used to it and realised the reasoning behind it, is that it jumps around timelines <b>a lot</>. One minute you're in the early eighties, the next it's 2003!

Other than that - this book is wonderful. Definitely for fans of Sally Rooney's Normal People - I got very familiar vibes and similar premise (however, I did prefer Another Life).

<i>Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for an advanced digital copy in exchange for my honest review</i>

“You are and always will be more than a month”

An exquisite way for Nick Mendoza to articulate his opinion of his love affair with Anna, one that takes place over the course of a scorching hot summer, both working in their local cinema, a relationship whose intensity burns brightly against a backdrop of Anna’s religion and Nick’s childhood which is signified by tragedy. That they both inhabit very different worlds makes their forbidden love all the more alluring and tempting, drawn to each other like moths to a flame. Yet as we all know if you play with fire you’re bound to get burnt especially as tragedy follows the Mendoza family around and Anna knows all too well the consequences of stepping outside the constraints of her religion. The starting point of this novel is a tragic event silently waiting in the wings, ready to explode dramatically onto the pages, setting a melancholic, regretful yet also beautiful tone to the narrative which compels you to sit up and take note of what is unfolding before your very eyes. This is a novel that is panoramic in its vision of what it means to love and be loved and I was mesmerised by the beauty and the pain present in all the characters lives. All the various forms love takes in this novel exposes this most talked about emotion as one that can be terrifyingly painful, magical, all consuming, rare and poignant and I defy anyone not to be swept up in the complexity of these individuals lives and the stories they have to tell.

The timeline swerves haphazardly so one minute you’re in the midst of this love affair and the next you’re plunged into Nick and Sal’s childhood memories or into Anna and Nick’s adult lives, separate from each other. All are a fascinating insight into what love can entail and what individuals are willing to endure in the name of love. However this isn’t simply an ill fated love story between Anna and Nick but a story about love in general, as the author herself acknowledges by the end of this novel. Just as important is the author’s exploration of the love that exists between Nick and his brother Sal, the dynamics of their relationship in conjunction with family life and the relationship both brothers have with their mother and father. I loved the snapshots of these childhood memories, good and bad, recollections that made my heart swell with love for Sal in particular. He definitely is portrayed as the underdog in the Mendoza family for reasons that are slowly revealed. Crucially it’s about Anna’s relationship with her religion, one that isn’t named but is probably recognisable to many of us and one that divides her from Nick and the ‘normal’ world. Her beliefs are a huge barrier to conducting their relationship out in the open and may or may not prove to be insurmountable.

Without all these other external factors that intrude and cause conflict, Anna and Nick’s love story would form a different shape, perhaps morphing into something more sustainable and/or less intense. Nick would be able to articulate everything he feels he cannot say and Anna wouldn’t find herself stuck between two worlds forced into making detrimental life choices at such a young age. Instead they both settle for less than they truly desire, leaving space for the magnetic push and pull of their love which results in so many brief, chance encounters and inevitable goodbyes in the intervening years. As Anna and Nick’s lives diverge and collide again and again theirs is a love that cannot be extinguished easily but it is frustrating to observe as an outsider looking in. Longing and yearning pervade all these relationships, from Anna wishing Nick had more agency, to Sal in particular wishing for a better relationship with his father, to both brothers mourning the loss of their mother so ultimately you feel saddened by everything these characters are forced to contend with. Ultimately there are no easy answers.

Written from a profound and philosophical perspective, this is the kind of storyline that put me in an introspective frame of mind. I felt very small and insignificant in the light of Anna and Nick’s love affair which to me is a behemoth, a love of such epic proportions, uncontainable and with a mind of its own. Whilst I can’t pretend to have experienced a romantic love of the magnitude expressed here I have like many experienced occasions when the timing or the circumstances are just not conducive to allowing a relationship to flourish, left with that feeling that in another life things could be so different. That is why Anna and Nick’s relationship resonates so powerfully in a narrative that is fraught with unresolved tension reflecting the urgency of their young love. I suppose more recognisable for me is the strength of sibling love which the author has depicted by Nick and Sal’s interactions over the years; there’s a clarity and precision to the writing that captures the very essence of their relationship from childhood and beyond.

Like Anna and Nick’s love the author’s writing has a magnetic pull so I found myself unable to prevent myself from falling headlong into this storyline. I loved every aspect of this novel from the enduring love affair, all the wrong turns taken and the missed opportunities to the betrayals and heartache and family tragedy. It is breathtaking in its scope and possibly one of the best stories of love you’ll read this year. If you are looking for an intelligent, beautiful, achingly sad and philosophical read then Another Life most definitely fits the bill. My thanks as always to the publisher and Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read.

A really beautiful book. Weaves through the timeframes so well and helps you piece it all together.
The beginning of the book had me completely hooked, a really unusual start where I needed to know more from the off. Loved the character Anna, and felt Nicks dysfunctional family made him really endearing. Sad at times, poignant in many. A really good read.

This is such a beautiful story which had me emotionally invested in Nick, whose perspective this story is told from, right from the outset. From the heartbreaking opening chapter set in 2018, where we learn his brother Sal has taken his own life, my heart went out to Nick and I couldn’t wait to get to know him and learn about his life.

I thought it was really effective how this story was told through Nick’s reminiscing of not only his memories from his childhood in the 80’s and 90’s but also his memories of that one special summer in 2003 with Anna when he was just 22 years old. Nick and Anna worked the same summer job at their local cinema and they found themselves forming a connection like no other. But with Anna unable to give up everything she’d ever believed in and everyone she’d ever loved to be with Nick due to her religious background, she walked away (although it’s never explicitly named within the story, her faith is recognisable as that of a Jehovah’s Witness). Heartbreakingly, Nick didn’t stop her or share his true feelings, a reluctance/character trait seen so many times throughout this story at various points.

Love was such an important thread throughout this book not only in terms of Nick and Anna’s summer together, but also through familial love and especially the bond between Nick and his brother Sal. Early on within the story it was also clear that something happened to their mother when Nick and Sal were young. I never could have predicted what happened and felt really emotional when this was revealed. I definitely think it heavily impacted/shaped the men they both became and the experiences they then had with their father growing up.

I am so grateful for the journey I got to go on with Nick and the real depth and understanding of his experiences that I was able to gain. I wished on so many occasions though, that things could have been different, whether that be as a result of the words that were spoken or those that were left unsaid. The element of unsaid thoughts was also clear within the emails Anna drafted but never sent to Nick and the poems she wrote too, which were interspersed during the latter parts of this story. I really liked this insight into Anna’s feelings for Nick.

I definitely didn’t want this book to end, even though the ending did make me smile! It is such a beautiful and moving story and I am excited to see what Jodie Chapman writes in the future!

📚BOOK REVIEW 📚⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
#anotherlife by @jodiechapman @penguinukbooks @netgalley

I read in the acknowledgments that someone commented to the author that this book isn’t a love story, this is a story about love, and I feel that is a very accurate way to sum up this read.

There are so many types of love explored in this book and the story just takes you on this amazing journey along with main character Nick looking at his relationships not only with his family but with Anna over a number of years. All of these relationships are unhappy and challenging at times and I really felt the author did a great job of exploring these accurately and with relatability.

I really enjoyed there ‘love story’ being narrated by a male character, I felt it gave the book a really fresh and often frustrating narrator, but overall he drove the story and emotions perfectly. All of the characters in this book are amazing. I felt like you could write a separate book exploring each of them and their lives.

I have two things I really really loved about this book; one being the writing style - it was one of those that just drew you in like a warm hug and kept you engaged, immersed and completely taken away with the story from start to finish. Secondly, how the book was presented using multiple timelines, sharing snippets of information completely out of order but totally at the right time. Just perfect.

I could talk forever about this book but best just to say I absolutely LOVED every second of it, I’m so sad it ended and would definitely recommend everyone picks this one up when it’s released!!!

Thanks to author #jodiechapman #penguinbooks and #netgalley for allowing me to read this one early!

Out: April 1st

-Emily

@the_book_girls_1

This was such an intense and heartbreaking book , I loved it but it was a difficult read for me. It's beautifully written, primarily the compelling love story of Nick and Anna, but it's so much more than this. For me it was the relationship between Nick and his brother Sal and their relationship with their father that was the most beautifully drawn. There is so much longing and yearning behind the words of this novel, Nick's inability to communicate is so real and the characters are so believable. Hanging over every page of this book is the sense of grief and loss. It's an understated book, despite the huge issues it covers.
A highly recommended book that I know will stay with me for a very long time.
Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a digital ARC.

Well now, this was an unexpectedly tough read. It took me a good couple of pages to really get a feel for this book and get into the flow of the writing. Once I did, I found it very gripping.

I enjoyed being taken through the various decades of Nick’s life and reliving the memories through his eyes. I felt every emotion that he could not display and my heart broke for him on more than one occasion. I was completely captivated by him and that made it difficult to warm to any of the other characters, however, I wouldn’t say that was necessarily a negative thing.

All the sensitive topics such as grief, drug use, suicide and religion were dealt with very tactfully. These aren’t straightforward topics to be presented with but they were interwoven seamlessly throughout the book and as such were more manageable.

It’s that book where one sentence knocks the wind out of you. I feel I will be carrying Nick around with me for a long time. Definitely not your average romance novel and I would 100% recommend it!

Wow wow wow. This book broke me in the best way. It is a heart wrenching portrait of a family interwoven with the love story of Nick and Anna. It feels a bit like if One Day had been written by Sally Rooney.

Firstly, negatives: at first I thought I was going to find Anna's character a bit *too* aloof to get on with, I was worried at points that she was going to stray into manic-pixie-dream-girl territory, but as I settled into the book all of her motivations were explained adequately for her aloofness to make sense. I also struggled a bit at first with the timeline as it jumps around between chapters, but this started to make more sense pretty quickly.

I love the relationships between characters in this book, they are believable and feel so real. I especially love the brother relationship between Nick and Sal.

The use of Anna's religion as a stumbling block for the relationship doesn't feel cliche or forced, it just seems to be a very sincere telling of a situation which many people must find themselves in. I found this doubly interesting after reading Chapman's author's note which states she used to be a part of one such religion.

This book deals with themes of grief, memory, family and loss all so beautifully. This is not to say there weren't times that I was tearing my hair out wishing Nick would communicate better, but it is logical for his character to behave this way and he still remains a likeable main character in spite of this.

My initial impression of this was it's striking similarity to David Nicholls' Sweet Sorrow. Not necessarily a good thing, as I found that story quite slow and achingly dull. Chapman's take on a coming-of-age story is much more compelling and draws you in from the beginning - this is the book Sweet Sorrow wanted to be.

With hints of A Little Life and a deep, emotional punch, this is a page-turning story that spans years. Whilst the romance and the minutiae of life take centre stage, there are some surprising twists and devastating moments that shocked me to the core. Whilst it may feel as if you've seen this story before, it is well worth a read.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC!

I have a feeling that this will be one of my favourite books of 2021! I could not put it down, it’s so, so good.
Anna and Nick meet when working at their local cinema and they have a very intense summer relationship. Nick has a very tragic past and Anna is battling against her own situation. She is the child of Jehovas Witnesses and she has been raised preparing for the End of Days where she will go to Paradise and the non-believer such as Nick will be damned. They spend the summer sneaking around and on one hand it is very much a teenage romance but on the other hand their connection is so strong and although they go their separate ways they still come in and out of each other's lives and neither forget how they feel.
Another Life is one of those fantastic books that captivates you from the very beginning. It is romantic but also realistic, it’s not all roses and chocolates. Anna and Nick have many faults and in some ways they bring out the worst in each other but you know from the start that they are right for each other.
Anna’s life as a Jehovas’ Witness is fascinating and I thought that Jodie Chapman represented it so well. She showed how Anna was indoctrinated from and that even though she knows she does not truly believe, the threat of losing her family and everything she knows is just too high a price to pay. She knows that she cannot be with Nick as he does not believe plus he has no intention of getting married. However, she knows how much he loves her and that he sees her true self rather than the facade that she has to put on for others.
I loved this book, there were so many moments that shocked me within the story, Chapman certainly knows how to keep your interest. I love getting to the end of the book and feeling like you have got to know characters so well that you will not forget them, Anna and Nick will be with me for a long time.

I really liked this book - it was such a moving, gorgeous tale of complicated first loves, the one that got away and grief in multiple forms. I would have liked to have read more about the dynamic between Sal and Mathilde, as I thought Sal as a character was particularly interesting, and maybe more of Anna as a mother. The structure/time jumping was a little confusing in Part 1, but not so much after that.

Another Life – Jodie Chapman

From the Penguin site: (https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/317/317822/another-life/9780241456910.html)

“She could be the girl dancing on tables one night, and the next she'd be hiding in the shadows.

Just when I thought I understood her, she would melt away and become a completely new person, and I'd have to start all over again.

That's how it was with Anna.
_______

Nick and Anna work the same summer job at their local cinema. Anna is mysterious, beautiful, and from a very different world to Nick.

She's grown up preparing for the end of days, in a tightly-controlled existence where Christmas, getting drunk and sex before marriage are all off-limits.

So when Nick comes into her life, Anna falls passionately in love. Their shared world burns with poetry and music, cigarettes and conversation - hints of the people they hope to become.

But Anna, on the cusp of adulthood, is afraid to give up everything she's ever believed in, and everyone she's ever loved. She walks away, and Nick doesn't stop her.

Years later, a tragedy draws Anna back into Nick's life.

But rekindling their relationship leaves Anna and Nick facing a terrible choice between a love that's endured decades, and the promises they've made to others along the way.”


I was drawn to this, I have to say, mainly because of the mention of the cinema. I worked in a cinema for a few years while I was at university and forged some of my most treasured relationships in that fire of the popcorn kettle and bin juice. My husband and I met there, heck, he was even a projectionist and I was a cashier. So far, so cliché.

I thought it was interesting that it’s told from Nick’s perspective, mainly because he’s almost constantly told that he is not emotive, he’s calm and stable and no-one knows what’s going on under the surface. It’s interesting because we as readers, sharing his thoughts with him, know that he is not calm and stable. He’s a swan, swimming frantically but trying to appear in control. His younger brother is leaning on him to keep the small family together after something happened to make their mother leave, exit stage left.

Part of the message of this book, what I took from this, is that people don’t always show what they’re feeling, they can’t always express what they want to say and it comes out wrong. It’s interpreted by the people receiving the message in the way they can, the way they have interpreted previously based on other experiences and their own bias.

The story takes us from toddler Nick to present day, where he is the thread that holds it together. The different narrative strands are handled deftly and with ease – Chapman juggles all of the balls so well, I never got confused about which Nick we were with, or what was happening.

The characters themselves declare philosophical foundations – that childhood is a cake carved in two when a traumatic event or decision occurs. Sometimes, carved into smaller than two – the Before and the After.

Chapter one is a cold open – just to warn you. It’s not a joyful book and from the beginning there is description of suicidal thoughts and attempts which makes it a tough read. While it’s not plain sailing, I appreciated the honesty of it – some things in life are beautiful and breath-taking, and some are just a bit crap.

Another theme woven through the book is a discussion around sex and society – what it means to be a woman, a wife, a lover, and a man, a husband, a father. Anna and Nick struggle against their own cages of what they think they should be, what their family wants from them and what they want to be themselves. Jobs we don’t like, drinks we don’t enjoy, friends we’ve grown out of but are trapped due to some sense of loyalty, misplaced or otherwise.

This is layered and stacked up against Anna’s religious background, recognisable to most as Jehovah’s Witnesses, although it’s never explicitly named. In the acknowledgements, Jodie Chapman talks about her own background growing up as a Witness, and how she wanted to portray her own feelings without detracting from those who are in the truth. Through Anna, she describes it as being a room where everyone is dancing to an amazing song, but she can’t hear it. She sees how happy they all are, and has a choice – to pretend she can and hope that she will, in time, or to say she can’t and walk away.

One of the things I enjoyed about Another Life is that the characters are empathetic. They are in a difficult situation, there’s a genuine reason for them not being together and this is recognisable as real life. While there will be an inevitable comparison to “One Day’ by David Nicholls, I felt that the difference is that I was actually rooting for Anna and Nick, whatever they decided to do. I can’t say the same for the St Swithin’s Day couple.

I felt it resonated more closely with Sally Rooney’s “Normal People” – kept apart by teenaged angst, social niceties and other family commitments, they’re magnetically drawn together as the years go by.

Compelling and recommended – I didn’t want the book to end, I wanted to know what happens next. Perhaps the best compliment!

Thanks as always to Netgalley and Penguin – Michael Joseph. This book is released on April 1st 2021, available to pre order now.