This book is an extraordinary collaboration between two literary inspirations, Margaret Atwood and Douglas Preston, that offers a deeply moving and thought-provoking story about human connection during times of isolation. Set against the backdrop of a shared New York City brownstone during a lockdown, this novel beautifully captures the raw essence of community, survival, and the resilience of the human spirit.

At its heart, the story is a tapestry of voices. Each resident of the brownstone contributes their own unique perspective, and the result is a chorus of emotions, fears, and hopes that feel entirely authentic. The authors manage to make every character distinct and compelling, bringing to life a diverse group of people who are bound together by circumstances but ultimately choose to stay connected by choice.

The writing is as evocative as you’d expect from these two literary giants, blending Margaret’s lyrical touch with Douglas’ knack for tension and storytelling. The dialogue bubbles with authenticity, ranging from humorous exchanges to deeply moving confessions, and every interaction feels like a window into the human experience.

What makes the book truly remarkable is its exploration of themes that feel particularly urgent: isolation, solidarity, and the shared vulnerabilities that make us human. The novel doesn’t shy away from the harsh realities of its setting, yet it also manages to find hope and beauty in the connections forged under extraordinary circumstances.

This is a book that feels both timely and timeless, capturing the universal need for community in a way that will resonate long after the context of its creation. If you’re looking for a novel that’s as much about the power of storytelling as it is about the people who tell those stories, this one is must-read. It’s a triumph of collaboration, empathy, and literary artistry.

I usually enjoy books by Margaret Atwood, but I’m not a fan of COVID-19 related stories. They hit too close to home and don’t offer the escape I would want from fiction. Though she is an amazing writer, the pandemic theme just felt draining rather than engaging for me.

this just didnt work. It was long winded and had no flow. I dont know what else you want me to say I hated it

This was good, but not great. Big names are involved but it is a bit hit and miss at times. Not sure it's soon enough for a lockdown book...

I enjoyed Fourteen Days, and it was a very handy book to read at the time. I was hanging around a hospital (my mum was ill, but recovered now), and the short story style was just what I needed to distract myself when I couldn’t really concentrate.

This is set in New York, and is based around an apartment block during the Covid 19 lockdown at the beginning of the pandemic. The inhabitants meet on the roof, keeping the required distance from one another, and tell stories of their lives pre-Covid.

A constant background is the noise from the ambulances delivering sick people to the nearby hospital.

Fourteen Days was written by several authors, each telling the story of a different inhabitant of the apartment block. The reader isn’t aware of who has written which story until the end. I liked this, because it didn’t give me any preconceived ideas of what the stories would be like - and there are some very different writing styles. The janitor runs throughout the novel, collecting all of the stories, telling her own story and trying to solve an ever-present mystery within the walls of the apartment block.

An enjoyable book, and I can definitely say that its a great book to dip in and out of when you’re short on time (or read all one one go if you can!).

Residents of an apartment block gather on the roof during lockdown and tell their tales. Each tale told by a different author

It was an interesting idea for a novel with different chapters written by different authors and I liked the way that each resident's story was told. I struggled after the first third of the book as it felt slightly repetitive. It was worth reading but you definitely have to be in the right frame of mind to be taken back to lockdowns and Covid.

Thank you to the authors. publisher and netgalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

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It was my mistake picking this book, as I hadn't realised it was set during Covid which is something I don't want to read about in my leisure time! I'd expected something different entirely so this was a DNF for me.

This was such an interesting take on a sort of Covid memoir - the experiences of the residents of a block of flats in New York during lockdown. Each person's recollection and story is written as a separate chapter by a different author and the interplay of characters and their reasons for behaving the way they do becomes clearer as you read their chapter. I found it difficult to guess who had written each chapter, but that was part of the fun.

I really liked the idea for this book but, despite several goes, I just couldn’t get into it. I think the period where I could be interested in Covid stories was just really short; at first it was too soon and now it’s too far gone.

Loved the idea of this book and some of the authors featured have written books that I have really enjoyed! Fourteen Days started off well and I really loved some of the tenants stories, but as the book progressed it just didn’t gel together like I had hoped it would.

Some of the stories felt very repetitive and not as diverse as I would have hoped. Other stories really hit the mark and are still in my head now!

Overall I felt disappointed with this one as I had such high hopes for it.

Fourteen Days is a short story collection, themed around residents of a tower block telling nightly tales during the COVID lockdown. As with all collections, some hit, some miss, but on the whole, this was a good read. The ending felt rushed, and could have been developed, but I enjoyed this. Recommended for short story fans.

Forced to leave her old home on account of her father being unwell and unable to fulfill his work duties maintaining a residential tower, the narrator moves to the Fernsby Arms to be the new Superintendent/Facilities Manager there. It was a tough gig to get owing to her being a woman in a man’s world, albeit she lands the lowly paid position at a falling down block all the same. Having left abruptly, the previous Super leaves behind a Fernby Bible for his replacement. In here are brief accounts of the tenants, complete with nicknames and a few pointers, as well as some blank pages for the next person to continue their own observations.

Within weeks of starting the role, New York as well as much of the Western world go into lockdown following the onset of the Coronavirus Pandemic. People are not allowed out, and no one is allowed to enter this New York residential block without due cause. Where the previous Facilities Manager did not have much of a relationship with the tenants, he certainly had his own opinions based on his observations of their comings and goings. No apartment was safe from his gaze and each apartment occupant was detailed in the Bible with small facts to accompany the nicknames he had chosen for everyone. As the first week of lockdown gets underway, more and more of the tenants find themselves on the forbidden roof occupying their own squares and enjoying a semblance of fresh air. Suddenly finding themselves thrown together, a group of strangers have the opportunity to become more neighborly as they share time and stories with each other.

I wanted to love this book and it was probably the most anticipated book on my reading list from the moment I heard about it until I got to the halfway point. The first half was a casual pace and a rude awakening to getting to know everyone by their nicknames as given by the last maintenance worker. It was fresh, funny, enlightening, illuminating, nostalgic. It tickled so many senses, memories, and emotions; especially as it delves into a shared recent history that the whole world can relate to. However, the joy and wonder, as well as the issue, with a project like this is that it brings together so many great writers that are both wonderful and unique when it comes to what they do. They have their own styles and voices, and I didn’t feel that they lent their voices to one specific character.

As strangers, the neighbors bickered and dropped to each other’s levels so despite their differences in age, culture, and personality, they were joined in spirit and class. For whatever reason, they all lived in this rundown building. However, over time, as more writers got involved, the language and pace of the novel changed. It got slower, heavier, less humorous in the telling of the background stories, and instead became more abstract, more confusing, and strange. The affinity I shared with the characters started to wane fast and it no longer felt like I had been with these people for a few days, a week. They became too familiar, too quickly, and I guess in some ways, this was the point, looking at humanity in the face of a crisis. In the end, my reasons for continuing to read was to experience this novel idea, and to try to work out which character had which writer’s overall voice.

The book is suited to readers that like to experience new ideas and concepts, readers of highly commercialized authors, curious readers who are on a mission to solve something. It will appeal to readers who enjoy reading about other people’s lives and history, and like a bit of drama. I didn’t love the book, but I didn’t dislike the book either. I was intrigued by it and compelled to keep reading. Overall, I rate the book 3 out of 5 stars. The writing was exquisite, just maybe not always suited in the same company. The stories within stories were varied, but they differed vastly in standard. That said, there is something in this book for so many types of reader. It commands an audience with everyone and has maybe cast its net too wide making it an average reading experience for me personally.

I had high hopes seeing the likes of Atwood as part of the author list for this book and wasn't disappointed, whilst some stories within certainly weren't so strong or to my taste, the majority were and I loved the fact despite the book ultimately being an anthology that whilst each story stood alone, they all have a running theme of the early days of the covid pandemic with the setting being a group of New York tenants in an apartment block and ultimately all interlink to the other in the notion each tale links to a tenant. It's the type of book that is perfect for your daily commute in that you can deep in and out and not land up too confused or lost when picking it up again.

Thank you netgalley and Random House, Vintage for the ARC.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC.

I was intrigued by the concept of this book - how exactly would 40+ writers collaborating on a single story work? And it turns out that, because this book is episodic in nature, it just about works. You can see where the joins are in the narrative, but in some ways it doesn't matter because the stories are so interesting. Some characters are much more developed than others, but the concept of neighbours coming together during a Covid lockdown is a solid one, and the ensemble works. I did see the twist at the end coming, but that didn't make it any less poignant.

I loved the premise of this book - so many acclaimed authors collaborating, but at the end of the day it was still a series of short stories; some I liked better than others.
Unlike other reviewers, for me the best bit was the framework that the short stories were hung from telling of a group of people isolating from Covid in the apartment block, communing (six feet apart) on the buildings rooftop on an evening to tell their stories.

If you think about it, it was quite an achievement to get so many great authors to contribute to this project. I have been tryin gto avoid stories based during this time bvecause we all lived it, and it feels a little too soon to relive history. But having said that, I enjoyed the stories from the people in this building. I will say however some of the writing was imbalanced and was stronger in places. However overall I really enjoyed it.

I read 2/3 of this book and just could not finish it. I found the writing to be lazy and didn’t connect with the characters. There isn’t any direction to the story. It seems to be written as a slice of life and takes place during Covid times in NYC in an apartment building.

I’m afraid my hopes were dashed.
Two very well established authors working together on this book? Oh yes please (I thought)

The blurb sounded better than the book!

I was expecting different tenants to join bit by bit conversations and get to know each other, some fun, some gossip. Nice little stories.

No, it was very disjointed and didn’t marry up well.
It was more like anecdotes which weren’t even seamlessly put together.

I know I’m harsh with my one star but I expected more from these two strong authors.

I liked the idea of this, a group effort by the Authors Guild, a modern Decameron.
Sadly I DNFed it at 34%.

Looking forward to stories in distinctive, different voices, the stories felt more like anecdotes that flowed on too seamlessly. The nicknames created an unnecessary distance to the characters. The Covid backdrop is jarring to me with all its updates on numbers of death that were relevant at the time.