A book that brings together residents of an apartment building who sit on the roof terrace telling stories during the COVID-19 pandemic. Each of the residents has a tale to tell, and they all sit on the roof terrace with a drink in the evening listening to each other tell those stories, where each is written by a different author which showcases the different approaches the authors have in writing them.

I enjoyed this book and the ending was quite unexpected but a very poignant ending. A five-star read with a five-star lineup of authors.





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This book has an interesting structure-a group of tenants meet on the rooftop of their apartment building at the start of the COVID lockdown to tell each other stories, with each character‘s voice secretly written by a famous author.

Unfortunately this didn‘t quite work for me; a lot of the stories weren‘t written in the way that people speak and there were more duds than diamonds.

I didn‘t see the ending coming though and that did elevate it a bit but it says something that I couldn‘t really be bothered to go back and figure out who had written which character (the ‘secret‘ authors are revealed at the end). Also, don‘t read this if you don‘t like ‘pandemic‘ books - it‘s VERY pandemic-y.

Fourteen Days was an unusual read. It's a collaboration between a large number of authors and it's a novel, although it reads like a collection of short stories.

The characters are collected together on the roof of a New York apartment block each evening, at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic. They're socially distancing, drinking alcohol and telling stories to pass the time. We hear the stories and meet the characters along with the new superintendent of the building, who is worrying about her father in a nursing home.

Some of the stories worked better for me than others and I generally had a good time with the book, although the ending annoyed me a bit. A recommended read for people who want to try something a bit different.

It is very surprising that so many great authors can get together and produce a book of such quality.
I guess the substance that made this possible was the fact that this book was essentially a collection of short stories.
The reasoning for this collection, and the story thread running through it is facing Covid in New York City.
Within the stories it is inevitable that some stories resonate more with the reader than others.
I guess that the most difficult task was the pulling together of the stories into a believable whole. This has been in my opinion exceptionally well done.
So with a mixture of sadness and happiness, I have finished my journey with the residents of the apartment block in New York City. I have shared some happy times with them, and some sad times.
The book brought back memories of my personal struggle through Covid, as it will, no doubt, for any other reader.
Overall an excellent book, good concept, well put together, and professionally delivered.
All readers will enjoy at least a part of this book, most readers I guess will enjoy most if not all.
My thanks to the author for the hours of enjoyment that the book has brought me, and thanks to the publisher for an advance review copy for free.
I am leaving this review voluntarily, and with pleasure.

A very different kind of read - but rather enjoyable!

In an apartment building in New York, one week into lockdown, tenants are beginning to miss going out and soon start to gather on the roof each evening - socially distanced of course. Slowly, people who have never spoken begin to get to know each other and they agree to each tell a story so they can get better acquainted. What's really different about this novel is that each story is written by a different author and, until the very end, we don't know who wrote what.

I really enjoyed some of these tales - others, not so much. Once finished, I checked the list of authors and realised that my favourite was actually written by Margaret Attwood herself. A couple of the stories included anecdotes which I've heard before which I felt was a bit of a cheat. Frankly, I expected better from the Author's Guild of America! The ending was unexpected and surprising and definitely made sense. I suspect this will appeal more to those who enjoy dystopian fiction.. Overall, for me, 3.5*.

My thanks to the publisher for my copy via NetGalley; this is - as always - my honest, original and unbiased review.

I came to read Margaret Atwood, but really I never knew which author I was reading, and I loved it.

This is about a group of New Yorkers during the Covid pandemic of 2020. Each night they meet on the roof top to share stories to pass the time, and begin to really know their neighbours.

This isn't a collection of short stories. There are no chapters as such, just the date of each of the 14 days in the title. Each day those on the roof just begin to share whatever they want to say. Some of them are tales, some are experiences, and they differ in length. Brilliantly written by everyone, I really felt I was there each evening. A few of the voices I loved more than others, but the ones (in the minority) I didn't care for I just scan read. It could have been the subject matter or the character, not everyone was for me.

I thought that was it, nothing more to say. However, unexpectedly at the end there was a twist - which I never saw coming, but it did explain some of my doubts. I read through this like a novel, but you could pick it up as and when you felt like it. There are a lot of characters and sometimes I felt like they had a slightly different voice, but I just went with it. I didn't get too hung up on which author wrote what. At the end of the book there are credits to each of the authors, explaining which of them wrote which tale.

This was a really odd one, as with most short stories collections, there’s a couple of stories that aren’t for me. But the overall story arc, the characters and the concept is brilliant and really interesting.
It is a really interesting mix of authors and, although it’s set in New York, it’s set during the Covid pandemic lockdown which I think all of us will find relatable.

I’d recommend avoiding reading too many reviews as there may be spoilers.

This is a collection of short stories but they are not random or separate. They are written by some of the most significant authors of our time who were all brought together during the COVID-19 pandemic to contribute. The premise of the book is that a number of people living in a run down New York apartment block are experiencing the first few days of the lockdown. They end up gathering on the rooftop every evening to cheer the health workers and eventually end up telling stories - some made up, some true, some in between the two! But each story and each character is interlinked and this is helped by the “main” character of the Super who moved to the role shortly before lockdown and is still trying to get to grips with events in her own past as well as worrying about her father who is in a nursing home and she can’t get hold of him.

Anyway, to say more would be to take away some of the joy and surprises in this book. As with all short stories by a variety of authors, there are some that I enjoyed more than others. But the way they are all woven together is wonderful. And while being taken back to the worst days of the pandemic isn’t easy, it’s a good thing to be reminded of the sacrifices made.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this book.

I was looking forward to reading this as the concept really appealed but unfortunately I didn’t enjoy it and gave up.

I love the concept of this book—A story that spans fourteen days in a New York City apartment building during the 2020 COVID pandemic. It's selling point is that it's a "collaborative novel". The multiple stories were written by a variety of high-profile authors, but you don't know which writers wrote which stories unless you peek at the credits in the back. All this edited by Margaret Atwood and Douglas Preston. I requested it at once and thank you to the publishers for the ARC.

I was disappointed to find that it didn't work for me. First of all, it doesn't really contain stories. Vignettes, scenes, snippets, yes, but there were no real stories. No narratives with a beginning, middle and end and twists and surprises etc. It was just a collection of unrelated incidents without plot. No depth, no mystery, and no narrative connection between them. There was nothing to pull me through the novel. Nothing to keep me emotionally or intellectually invested. Given the level of my original expectations, I persevered, but I did not enjoy the book. I can barely remember any of the incidents I did read as they just slipped out of my mind.

Another problem was that it was, for me at least, impossible to keep track of the characters, who was who, who looked like what, ages, background, etc. They were referred to via code names and apartment numbers and there were too many to keep track of. The lack of visual description really did not help. It would have been very helpful for the publishers to include a chart at the front. And I found the main character, the super, uninteresting and not fully developed. I guessed it was a female character written by a man, and it turned out I was right.

A lot of the vignettes felt hastily dashed off and incomplete. Some were incoherent and in need of more editing. The prose itself was strong, of course, but not memorable enough to win me over. And there was a kind of, not sure how to describe it, but a Twitter-culturey tone to a lot of it that I found off-putting. Some of the stories were openly and loudly bigoted.

As other people have said, there's a twist at the end, but I found it annoying, almost insulting, and not worth the effort to reach it. And it didn't feel believable in a world-building sense. So while I'm grateful I was given a chance to read this book, I didn't ultimately enjoy it.

I was very intrigued by the concept of the book and I was looking forward to reading from some favourite authors and some I’ve not encountered before. The first couple of chapters read well and I was interested to continue. However, I did DNF this at 47%. I just found the whole thing quite boring and I had no will to want to carry on. I thought that my problem was the fact that I was reading this on Kindle (I prefer physical books), but I’ve since picked up another ARC on Kindle and I’m flying through it. Unfortunately, not for me. Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers.

The concept behind this is really interesting. Rather than a single author this book has been written by 36 different authors in collaboration, with each author tackling a different character and telling their story. At the end of the book there are notes to explain who wrote which character and there is a whole mix of authors from all different genres in there.

I was drawn to this for a few reasons; it’s set in New York, which is one of my favourite cities in the world, some incredible writers that I love like Margaret Atwood, Emma Donoghue, John Grisham and Tess Gerritsen were involved, and, finally, the concept sounded so different and I love trying new things.

There were some parts that didn’t really land for me. The linking parts, between the characters gathering on the roof and telling their stories, is told by the super of the apartment building and instead of the characters having names they are referred to by the nicknames given to them in the notebook left by the previous super. We also get very little information about the characters outside of the stories they share, and these two elements together did make it a little difficult for me to form any real attachments to any of the characters.

The format of the book almost makes it feel like a short story collection rather than a traditional novel but, as you’d probably expect with the calibre of authors involved, very good quality short stories on the whole. I also loved the mix of genres hit across these stories thanks again to the use of different authors.

The apartment building itself almost becomes another character with some mysterious noises in the vacant apartment above the super and I loved the running theme of the artwork being added to on the roof. The pandemic setting also worked really well at isolating these characters in their lockdown and it brought back a lot of memories of that time!

It’s a decent length book but the ending felt a little rushed for me and I was left with quite a lot of questions, I would have liked just a little more closure.

Overall, a really interesting concept that was generally very well executed. There was something for everyone here.

It is March 2020 and the tenants in the Fernsby Arms block of flats are locked down as the covid pandemic ravages New York. A new caretaker has just taken the reigns and discovers a key to the roof terrace, where she can escape from the oppressive walls of this rundown building. Gradually the tenants discover the caretaker’s haven and gather in the evenings where they each tell a story to keep everyone entertained. Some of these stories were really entertaining, others were deeply disturbing, others were quite dull and one or two seemed to go nowhere.

I started this book full of enthusiasm and excitement but by the time I was about halfway through and had been disturbed by one story in particular, my enthusiasm had waned and I started putting off reading it. After a few weeks, I took the bull by the horns and powered through it and finished it off. It picked up marginally towards the end and there was a twist that saved it a bit but overall I struggled with this. Interestingly, when I read the biogs of the contributors' at the end of the book, I realized there were several authors there that I avoid because their material is too gritty for me. For me, this book has too much darkness in it which overshadowed the good.

Thanks to NetGalley for the arc in return for an honest review.

When I first heard about this book, I admit I was more than a little intrigued. There were some names amongst the authors that I’d heard of, many more that I hadn’t, but, much like with a short story anthology, I figured it was a great way to experience the different authors in a very unique way. For this is, and isn’t, a short story collection. Is, because it is a book set at the very start of the pandemic in which each of the residents of a New York apartment building passes away their hours in lockdown by sharing a story of some kind, be it theirs, or that of a close friend. In some cases they may even be a complete work of fiction. As each author gives voice to a different resident, effectively what you are getting is a series of short stories, linked by a kind of central narrator, in this case the Superintendent for the building. New to the apartments herself, she provides a kind of introduction to each resident by way of a diary left by the previous Super, shared carefully in snippets with us as readers.

What makes this different from a standard short story collection is that, unless you read the end of the book first, you won’t know whose work you are reading and which author has given voice to which character. I must admit, I didn’t go hunting down that information until the end of the book, more interested in reading the flow of the book, getting to understand the characters and the links between them. I had no idea if I was reading Sylvia Day or John Grisham, Celeste Ng or Scott Turow, and it really didn’t matter. The Super, Yessie, also provides a kind of running update on the progression of Covid and how quickly and widely it took over the city, and the country, a stark reminder of those early days of the pandemic and our blind journey into the unknown. There is that underlying fear and distrust amongst the residents, the lacklustre compliance over things like wearing of masks, and the tongue in cheek memories of the rush for that last carton of toilet roll that became such a talking point in those early days.

Much like any other short story collection, there are stories which resonated and intrigued more than others, one that will linger longer in the mind. Stories that made me laugh and ones which made me a little sad. It is perhaps only now that we are some four years on from that initial wave that reading a book so clearly focused on the pandemic is a little easier to read. It almost feels like it never really happened, like it was a lifetime ago, even though the legacy of the virus is still very much with us. The stories are very clevely brought together, some of the interlinking scenes providing a kind of indication of where this is leading us all. Set over just fourteen days of lockdown, there are many stories to be told so some chapters, and stories, are longer than others, but that sense of trying to find something good in an overwhelming sense of hopelessness and lack of control really rings true and, for those who lost people during the pandemic, may make this an uncomfortable read at times.

The ending of the book is actually quite poignant, and without going into spoiler territory, the only fitting end. I like the variety of character, liked the way in which they were all brought to life and how easy it was to relate to them, in all their eccentricities and character quirks. It’s a very interesting experiment and one I think they pulled of really well. It won’t be for everyone – for some the wounds of covid are still very raw. But if you can look beyond the setting of the pandemic, there are some wonderful stories which speak to the very diversity of humanity, and how a situation which by definition created great isolation, also had the effect of unifying strangers, if only for often very tragic reasons.

Fourteen days: the period over which our novel unfolds, as the tenants of one run-down New York apartment block gather (with social distancing!) each evening on the rooftop, in the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic, to cheer on the frontline workers and then share, and listen to, stories drawn from their own experience. We aren’t given forenames but each tenant is referred to by a nickname designated by the previous superintendent: Tango, Hello Kitty, La Cocinera, Eurovision and so on… making them at once defined by something in their life, but also somehow anonymous. There are love stories, stories involving crimes, simple stories, outrageous stories, humorous stories, strange stories, surreal stories, deeply sad stories, and everything in between. Are they all even real stories? Does it matter? At a time of uncertainty, fear, mistrust, and isolation, this novel embodies the power of storytelling to both unite and transport; to provide a form of escapism when it’s needed; to see existence through the plights of others at a time of universal struggle; to assert the vitality of humanity in the face of an unpredictable virus; and together to make sense of what it is to be human when nothing around us makes much sense anymore.

There is a lot going on in this book. There are a lot of characters, a lot of voices, a lot of stories within the story, a lot of evolving exchanges between the characters on the rooftop in between the stories; and add to this our narrator, the building’s superintendent, who reflects on her own backstory and expresses the worry she is feeling about being separated from her elderly father, cocooned elsewhere in a nursing home. Here’s the unique twist: this novel is brought to you through a collaboration of 36 American and Canadian authors, who have each contributed to give us one of the tenants’ stories; but we don’t know who wrote which story until the end. With highly recognisable names such as Margaret Atwood (co-editor of the book along with Douglas Preston), Celeste Ng, John Grisham, Emma Donoghue and Tommy Orange amongst the contributors, this all comes together as an expansive tapestry of stories within a story, reaching far and wide from one contained rooftop space. If the stories jump wildly from one kind of story to another, from one time, place and culture to another, creating a meandering and at times disjointed feeling, this is countered and centred to a certain extent as one story is often inspired in some way by the story that preceded it, or the conversation sparked between the tenants by the last story. We also see an evolution in the dynamic between the tenants as they begin to open up and get to know each other better, which adds an element of fluidity and progression to the novel.

As said, this book is a lot - how could it not be with such a diverse mix of voices behind it - but it does all come together in the end in quite the finale. A literary exquisite corpse of sorts, and a unique capture of the early pandemic, as I progressed through it I found my rhythm with it and enjoyed it overall. Would rate 3.5 stars if I could.

Set in a Lower East Side tenement in the early days of the COVID-19 lockdowns, Fourteen Days is a collaborative novel from the Authors Guild, with an unusual twist: each character in this diverse, eccentric cast of New York neighbours has been written by a different, major literary voice--from Margaret Atwood and Celeste Ng to Tommy Orange and John Grisham.

One week into the COVID-19 shutdown, tenants of a Lower East Side apartment building in Manhattan begin to gather on the rooftop and tell stories. With each passing night, more and more of them gather, bringing chairs and milk crates and overturned pails. Gradually the tenants--some of whom have barely spoken to each other--become real neighbours.

I was excited to start reading this book with its impressive cast list of authors. But, despite its promising pedigree, it reads like what it is, a collection of short stories by different authors, and I found some much less interesting and compelling than others.

If the idea was trying to replicate the tradition of spoken stories, some succeed better than others. Many phrases just don't sound like the way people speak - as if some authors had forgotten the premise of the storytelling. Unfortunately, I started to find this a long hard read which didn't really start picking up the pace until quite near the end.

I enjoyed the twist at the end, and there are some really good stories in the mix, but it was just too long and too varied in quality for me to give it more than 3 stars.

With thanks to the publishers and NetGalley for an ARC for an honest review.

Fourteen Days is an intriguing concept - a collaborative novel involving thirty six well known authors ranging from Margaret Atwood to Meg Wolizer and including names like John Grisham, Douglas Preston, Celeste Ng, Diana Gabaldon, Tommy Orange and Charlie Jane Anders. Set in a New York apartment building in the early days of the Covid 19 pandemic, the book tells the stories of the residents through their own eyes and the eyes of the new building superintendent. Each of the characters is written by a different author or combination of authors, and as they gather nightly on the rooftop of the building they share their stories, becoming real neighbours rather than just a collection of tenants who happen to share the same building.
The book does capture the sense of fear and unknowing that the world shared in the early days of the pandemic, especially since one of the characters keeps a tally of the case numbers and deaths as part of a diary within the book, and reading it really did take me back to that uncertain and in many ways terrifying time.
I really liked the idea of this book and I have read and enjoyed works by many of the featured authors yet somehow I felt like this book was less than the sum of its parts. There were so many characters introduced using a mix of nick names or references to their apartment numbers that it was difficult to keep them all straight in my mind and as a reader I sometimes struggled to remember which character was telling their story. The actual telling of the stories was also something that didn't quite work for me in several cases, the flow just didn't feel natural for a story that was supposedly being told orally and recorded. While I can appreciate that it must have been difficult to come up with a way to connect so many diverse writing styles and authors, the way it was handled here was also something I struggled with especially as the book went on and to cap it all off the ending seemed cliched and rushed.
Overall a very hit and miss collection
I read and reviewed an ARC courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher, all opinions are my own.

The book focuses on a group of residents in a condominium in New York, during the first few weeks and months of the Covid pandemic in 2020. The meta narrative is about the residents, their relationships with each other, and the nightly ritual they establish of going to the building's roof and telling stories.

The main draw of this book is that each part (essentially, a "story" told by our protagonists) is written by a different North American author, some of who are very famous (Atwood, Ng Grisham), and other a bit more unknown (at least to me).

I was able to finish the book, and some of the stories within in resonated. I liked in particular the stories about the immigrant experience in America, and the two told in the last few days by the super and Darrow.

That being said, there are several reasons I would give this book a strong pass (and yes, I considered stopping multiple times). First, and perhaps as expected, it is very uneven. Some stories are absolutely great (minority), while others are bad, and yet others are terrible. The connecting scenes start off being passable, but by the 2nd half of the book devolve into ignorable gap fillers.

Second, many (perhaps more than half?) of the stories had a strong supernatural component to them (I don't mean fantasy - I rather mean ghosts, angels, or god), or were way too "woke" in my view (especially the critique of Decameron). The former is a literary genre I neither comprehend nor can tolerate. Can't really explain it - but it's easier for me to read about zombies and vampires and aliens, than people believing in ghosts and acting like this is ok. The latter is fine when dealt with thoughtfully and systematically, but this collection, more often than not, it digressed to lazy stereotypes and bashing of Western Culture (no reason why the genius of Boccaccio cannot be respected while highlighting its flaws via a contemporary reading, and drawing attention to literature written outside of the West historically and today).

Third, I found the final twist in the book lazy and corny. It just didn't resonate and reminded me too much of another lazy twist in a famous film by a famous director, which I won't mention so as not to err on the side of spoilers.

Finally, there is really no reason for this book to exist. It conveys no deep message, it doesn't entertain well, and it doesn't really communicate the nuances of the Covid experience with enough sensitivity and multi dimensionality. I barely remember the stories now, and I finished the book 1hr ago. In a week I'll barely remember reading it. So what did I waste my time on? Fooled into buying into it by some great names on the cover, to my shame.

Overall, a very strong pass.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an early copy of this book in return for an honest review.

I was drawn to the book by the interesting premise of multiple writers writing one book, but unfortunately I think multiple writers writing one book is what let it down in the end. Ultimately, "Fourteen Days", set in an apartment building in New York over a period of fourteen days in the early Covid pandemic, is a series of very different short stories loosely tied together by filler. Some of the stories were gripping, but others were instantly forgettable, and indeed I found myself skim reading a lot of the very wordy latter ones.

However, I did like the idea of the book of residents left by the previous super, describing the inhabitants and never actually giving any of them their real names, and somehow I didn't see the ending coming - although now of course it makes perfect sense!

This was more or less exactly what I expected.

Fourteen Days is essentially a short story collection with a twist-- all the stories are fed to us via characters in a New York apartment building, and each one is written by a different author. Set during the COVID lockdown, the cast of characters gather on the roof of their building to exchange stories.

Like virtually every single short story collection I have read, this book has its stronger stories and weaker stories. Some kept my eyes glued to the page, while others I have already forgotten. The stories are all spoken aloud to a group and while some authors adapted well to this, other stories contained too much detail or were so overly weird that they did not feel realistically like spoken word.

Ironically, some of the big names that most attracted me to the book did not write the best characters. I guess this project may have been pretty low priority for them. Atwood's short contribution, for example, showcases one of my favourite authors at her weirdest (and not in a good way). They tried to give her an odd character to accommodate her eccentricities but, even so, it felt totally bizarre and unbelievable to me.

Also, I found the chitchat and set-up between the stories quite tedious. Because they chose this specific framing, it made it necessary for the narrator to introduce each day, scene and character before launching into the next story. It was mostly filler.

An ambitious experiment that didn't quite work, in my opinion. So many stories, characters and voices led to a book that was uneven and incohesive. And I didn't like the ending.