I loved the idea of this one, a collaborative story.

I was a little disappointed to be honest. I’m not saying it was bad, it just wasn’t for me.

Some stories I loved, others not so much. But I think that was a given with how many different authors work was in there.

If you like short stories and anthologies this one will definitely be up your street. But for me, the format just didn’t work to my taste.

This is a clever idea brilliantly executed with a real twist. Over the course of fourteen days, a group of tenants from a New York building gather on the roof to applaud the emergency services during the early days of the Covid outbreak. As time passes they each bring a chair, a drink or whatever and tell socially distanced stories.

The whole is framed by the building "Super" who talks us through each day and has named the tenants - lady with the rings, Eurovision, Vinegar etc which allows us to form pictures of them. They start off fairly cold to each other but through the stories become closer. The stories vary from straightforward to downright weird but never boring.

I especially enjoyed the stories with the curse and the one by the Caretaker. We don’t know who writes each story till the end of the book and there are some incredibly stellar names here. I’ll reread a few of these now I know who the different writers are but I’d recommend reading it ‘blind’ to begin with.

An entertaining way to pass a few hours.

I was given a copy of this book by NetGalley

Interesting premise and a hugely enjoyable read. Some of these authors were known to me, but others I hadn't read before so it definitely gave me an introduction to new to me authors with extensive back catalogues. Each storyteller had a unique voice and story to tell. Fourteen Days reminds us that there's more that binds us than separates us.

"The truth is, in normal times, we wouldn't give each other the time of day. We've got almost nothing in common, do we?"

It's one week into the COVID-19 lockdown in New York City when the new superintendent of a rundown Lower East Side apartment block begins spending her time on the rooftop. It's not long before other residents begin to join her. Initially, they all ignore each other, sitting the recommended six feet apart. Then, some of them begin to talk, sharing stories, both those of others and their own. Tales of love, life, death and everything in between abound.

As the days pass, and the number of cases and deaths ramps up, residents of different ages, backgrounds and walks of life start revealing more about how they've experienced life and how they view the world. All the while, the super sits and secretly records their conversations on her phone, while being reticent to reveal her own story.

With a mammoth 36 famous writers specialising in various genres taking part in this collaborative novel (including greats like Margaret Atwood, Celeste Ng, Tess Gerritson, John Grisham and RL Stine), I loved the concept of this book. Unfortunately, I like the IDEA more than the book itself. Some of the residents' stories are moving and interesting and others not so much. It feels like a collection of short stories that have a building in common.

I did love the 'twist' or reveal. I thought it was cleverly done and didn't pick up on the foreshadowing until much later in the novel. I wish there would have been a bit more in-depth character exploration with the super, which may have tied the narratives together coherently. It's not incoherent just slightly disconnected in some places.

A really interesting concept.

I really enjoyed this book. Set across 14 days at the start of the pandemic, it follows the residents of a New York high rise who are locked down and go up onto the roof at night to share stories from a safe social distance. The characters were varied and the stories ranged from touching to absolutely crazy. The over arching feeling of the book was community - the very thing we lost through the pandemic. All of these people from different walks of life with many different stories all sharing the need to not be alone. When human contact was taken away it was the one thing we all wanted and it's the same of the people living in this story. I loved the gimmick that it was all written by different authors and I have to say that worked pretty well (although there were a couple of chapters I found harder going than others). Overall I really enjoyed it and would recommend. Thanks to all of the authors, Chat to & Windus and NetGalley for the ARC.

It’s an interesting premise but, to be honest, I didn’t feel that it worked. Partly, it’s difficult to get into writing about COVID, but there was also too much choppiness between the different stories. It was hard to get motivated to continue.

Sorry I didn’t enjoy this one, it got quite monotonous with the structure. Also wasnt keen on the ending. I’m sure lots will love this as a short story collection rather than read as a novel

I was not about the subject of this book because I hated the Covid lockdowns in the U.K.
This is an interesting and absorbing story with memorable characters and it is fascinating how the story follows through with different authors writing each chapter.
I was surprised at the end when I found out who wrote each chapter.

This could be described as a book of short stories but the interweaving of tales against the backdrop of disaster and the interaction between the group make this book even more profound as their inner fears and anxieties surface during the time of isolation.

What an admirable feat it is to marshal 36 writers and put together a collaborative novel that reads beautifully, about a time that most of us would rather forget.

Inspired by Boccaccio's Decameron (a 14th Century book of stories about people who were escaping the Black Death by sheltering in a luxury villa outside Florence). Fourteen Days is edited by Margaret Atwood and Douglas Preston, and written by both editors and a team of esteemed and best-selling writers (among them Emma Donoghue, Celeste Ng, RL Stine, John Grisham and Meg Wolitzer).

The book is set in New York, in a Lower East Side tenement at the height of the Covid pandemic in 2020, when the virus was spreading rapidly throughout New York, and its hospitals, healthcare workers and mortuaries were struggling to cope with the influx of sick patients and dead.

The residents of the apartment building, led by the building's superintendent, meet nightly on the roof, initially to clap healthcare workers and then to share cocktails and stories, light and dark.

As with any collection of short stories (yes this is a collaborative novel and reads as such but really it is a number of short stories stitched together skilfully to make a novel), some are more interesting than others, and the pace is uneven at times, but it is always colourful, interesting, beautifully written and surprising. I gasped a little at the ending and I loved finding out afterwards which writer had written each chapter. This is one that I think would work brilliantly on audio with a cast of characters. Very enjoyable. 3.5-4/5 stars

*Many thanks to the authors, the publisher Chatto & Windus for the arc via Netgalley. As always, this is an honest review.

On the surface, this is a bunch of short stories from a bunch of authors, grouped within a framework involving a bunch of characters telling a variety of stories, and a bit of an overview of those characters. And it is that, so of course as with any collection of short stories (especially a collection by a range of authors), I liked some of the stories more than others. The reader is not told until the end of the book which author provided which story, and while there were a couple whose authors I was able to identify with some certainty, there were others that very much surprised me - and one or two by authors I've not yet read that left me really wanting to grab their books because I loved the writing so much.

But this is so much more than a collection of short stories. It's a meditation on the power of storytelling, and it's extremely cleverly-constructed, with clues/foreshadowing all the way through, with links - not immediately apparent - between stories (sometimes stories by different authors), and the overall framework is far more than it initially appears. A day or so after finishing it, I went back and read it again, mainly to try to clearly create the framework in my head, but in re-reading, I discovered so much that I'd missed on first reading.

I have far more that I could say if I weren't trying to avoid spoilers (not usually something a reviewer needs to worry much about when it's a book of short stories!)

This would make a fabulous bookclub book for the right type of bookclub.

Surprisingly entertaining, very thought-provoking, and highly recommended!

Original premise. Superb writing. I guess as would be common with most people and the authors are so varied that I connected more with some parts than others. Brilliant concept and well executed

Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for allowing me to read and review this book.

Really interesting concept and very well executed! Some of the stories weren’t for me but overall an enjoyable read.

This brilliant collaboration between writers will keep you turning pages. Smart, thrilling and pithy. This may be your read of the year!

I was intrigued by the concept of this book, understanding it to be a collection of short stories set in a New York apartment block at the beginning of the COVID pandemic. As usually happens for me with an anthology, I preferred some of the stories (mostly ghost or “shaggy dog” tales) to others, but what I liked best was the overarching narrative telling its own intriguing and surprising story as the book progressed, and which I had not expected. A very good read, only loosing a star because of the few stories that did not appeal to me.

An interesting idea, but not very well constructed. It very much felt like a book written by a large group of different people, rather than being coherent. Also, no one needs more Covid lockdown books. We all lived it, we know it was terrible.

The premise of ‘Fourteen Days’ is intriguing. Take a load of authors, all of whom are critically-acclaimed in their own right, and get them to collaboratively write one novel. I can only imagine the logistics behind organising that one, especially during a pandemic. I can only admire the experimental nature of this novel and the radical approach to its construction.

Reading ‘Fourteen Days’ made me question the nature of novels. What makes one book of 300 plus pages a novel, whilst another is a collection of short stories with a series of motifs and shared characters?

‘Fourteen Days’ is set in New York during well, fourteen days, of the COVID lockdowns. It tells of the hopelessness, boredom, grief and terror that many faced during those difficult months of 2020. Each night, the building’s residents congregate on the roof and tell their stories, recorded by the buidings’ super, Yessie.

I started to read Yessie’s story as a novel, enjoying the protagonist and her life story. After a few chapters, the other characters’ stories became a larger focus and the framing narrative seemed to be forgotten, with Yessie simply writing up the stories on some nights. I particularly enjoyed ‘The Spider’, ‘A Gift for Your Wedding to Which I Was Not Invited’, ‘The Iron Lung’, ‘The Tapes of Charlotte P’ and ‘Shakespeare in Plague Times’, although there is something in here for most people. By about halfway through the book, I was definitely reading it as a collection of unconnected short stories. However, towards the end, I felt that things were coming together into a more cohesive narrative once again.

Overall, I did enjoy reading ‘Fourteen Days’, and whilst I’m not convinced that it completely achieves its aims of being a ‘novel’ in its truest sense, there is a strength in the collaboration and the concept seems altogether fitting as a product of the covid lockdowns.

I knew that this book would be a little different to what I usually read but I underestimated by how much. Even now, a few weeks after reading it I’m still not sure what to think.
I should say that it is very good. It’s original, powerful and very modern. But it’s also strange. It says a lot when the most normal thing about it was the pandemic. Only a few years ago but in many ways it feels like a lifetime. Seeing the daily figures, the deserted streets, the fights over toilet roll and the clapping for the health workers. Only thing different was that it took place in New York and not in the UK.
I gave up early on trying to work out who wrote what. Instead I focused on the increasingly bizarre characters. Obviously there is the usual likeable/ unlikeable feeling but there was also the feeling that none of them were as they initially seemed. All had a backstory, a lot of which was confusing for this reader with not really knowing about the attitudes towards different cultures in America. Some of the stories were fascinating, some upsetting, some a little bit scary. But almost all of these people I had sympathy for. In particular Yessie, the super, who was struggling more than the others to be accepted and struggling with not being able to see her father. Another was the character known as Maine. A medic who has experienced first hand the devastation in the hospitals.

Set during the dreaded COVID19 pandemic, this book follows the life stories of a group of tenants in New York with nothing better to do than get to know each other.

The premise of this book (minus the covid part) really interested me but what really got me was the collaborative authoring of the stories however this is the aspect I enjoyed least as some of these authors have very distinctive voices that really disrupted the flow of the book.

As with any short story structured books, there was some stories I enjoyed more than others. Overall a good read but not revolutionary.

Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for providing me with an eARC.

The cover, the premise and oh thar list of authors drew me this book, as an avid reader of short stories, I was excited for this one .

Set during an early Covid lockdown in a New York rundown apartment block, the residents gather each evening on the rooftop to share stories. As the days pass, more and more of the neighbours seeking connection , join in. Some of whom have never spoken before .

As is the way with many short stories collections, some hit hard, some are a joy and there a couple of blips along the way.

I read this over a number of weeks and perhaps I would have enjoyed it more had I read in one go.

I did like the diversity of the voices and stories and the concluding stories felt fitting and right.

A wonderful idea and recognition of the people who couldn’t flee cities when the pandemic struck if a slightly uneven read. Perhaps it’s all still too fresh. In a decades time this may hit differently.

3.5 stars