As with any regular short story anthology, this collection of closely linked stories has its stronger stories and its weaker ones. Or perhaps it all comes down to a question of preference. Because every story in this collection is written by a renowned author. Though as readers, we do not find out which story is written by which writer until the very end...

It is set in a time most of us will remember all too well. One week after the lockdown is imposed in Manhattan, a group of inhabitants from an apartment building are spending socially distanced time outdoors on the roof. As they begin telling their own stories, gradually the numbers of people showing up for these storytelling sessions expands.

In this most unexpected way people get to know each other better. And they do it in a span of time that is far shorter than the period that each of them have been living there! It is interesting to think that social distancing could make people grow closer to each other...

This is a fascinating concept and I liked the majority of the stories. They function as slice of life tales and most readers will find something here to enjoy. The fact that we don't initially know which writer is writing the story that we are reading definitely provides an added dimension of fun, and also encourages people to read outside their comfort zone. A good idea, well-executed, with the inevitable divergence in preference for individual readers.

A mixed bag. Fourteen stories by fourteen different authors, set over fourteen days. The stories are each told by a different tenant of a New York tenement block plus their superintendent. Only at the end of the book do you find out who wrote each chapter. Set during Covid, they all meet on the rooftop patio (socially-distanced, of course)., to clap for carers and enjoy a natter. My favourite chapter was Day Thirteen, which really got everyone talking. Some of the others weren’t to my taste.

What a roster of authors! And what a fascinating dive into a group of people on a rooftop; while the pandemic rages around them, the story is of their stories, and in listening to one another. At times odd, at times magical - just as it would be in real life.

I was really looking forward to this collaboration, but unfortunately was disappointed. It was very disjointed and the chapters didn't really gel. I know they weren't necessarily supposed to as they tell the story of different people in the tenement, but it was too jarring. Sorry!

Sorry to say but not a book I enjoyed. I felt that a lot of the stories were lacking in depth. It seemed as if the different authors did not rally spend much time or thought to their articles.

The book sounded promising but felt let down by it.

Description:
Written by over 30 different writers including Margaret Atwood, John Grisham, R. L. Stine, and Dave Eggers, Fourteen Days follows a group of people living in an apartment block in New York during the coronavirus pandemic. They gather every evening for fourteen days to tell their stories and seek solace in each others' company. The introduction notes that this ISN'T a classic frame narrative like The Decameron or The Canterbury Tales, but I'm really not sure what distinction they're making, because as far as I can tell it absolutely is.

Liked:
Some of the short stories within this piece are nice, and encouraged me to try out writers I hadn't heard of before (the specific credits are at the end of the book, which I thought was a nice touch; you can play a kind of guessing game with it). The standout pieces, for me, came from Alice Randall, Hampton Sides, Dave Eggers and Caroline Randall Williams.

Disliked:
The framing narrative was not great. I was betting that the lesbian protagonist was being written by a man within the first chapter. The majority of the stories were par or subpar - with some of the biggest writers seemingly haven given the project the least effort. Loved this as a concept but the execution was fairly lacking, unfortunately.

Wouldn’t recommend, overall, but it has given me some new authors to check out.

I love the idea of this and was excited by all the authors. involved. However, I didn't enjoy if nearly as much as I was hoping to.

It started to pick up at the end with the last 15% being a lot more engaging than the first 85%. The stories being told were supposed to be have been spoken aloud to the group on a rooftop of an apartment building however, some of them didn't have the feel of spoken word or verbal storytelling and didn't feel natural.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for this eARC of 'Fourteen Days'

'Fourteen Days' is a novel written by multiple well known authors and takes place over.. you guessed it... fourteen days. Each chapter is written by different authors and honestly, you don't notice other authors wrote them most of the time except for the odd chapter where you notice a disjoint and it kinda ruins the reading experience and that's why I have to give it a 3.

Fourteen Days by Margaret Atwood and Douglas Preston

A dazzling array of US and Canadian authors collaborate on a collection of short stories as told by the residents of a New York apartment building in the Covid-19 lockdown during their nightly visits to the rooftop.

A brilliant concept which is executed very impressively. A wide range of stories, some a bit gritty/gruesome for my taste but most are very entertaining. I enjoyed this book and would highly recommend it.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book.

3.5 rounded up

Thirty six American/Canadian authors from a variety of literary backgrounds, collaborate to tell the stories of a group of New Yorkers who are unable to escape the city during the Covid pandemic, unlike affluent city dwellers. It’s March 31, Day One, the first day of lockdown and the story is told over the next 14 days. The characters are tenants of the grandly named Fernsby Arms, a misleading name indeed, for a rundown block, which has thus far avoided gentrification. The new super of the less than salubrious building holds the whole thing together, I love her ironic tone, as life has dealt her many lemons, and yet she is still an upstanding, tough, strong woman. In amongst the detritus left by the previous super, she finds “The Fernsby Bible”, a handmade book of observations of tenants, who glory in appropriate nicknames, such as Vinegar, Eurovision, Florida, and Hello Kitty. She’s also left a little bit of “magic“ “, a key to the rooftop terrace, which affords spectacular views way beyond the price of the rent. One by one, the tenants drift up here, find a place to sit, socially distanced naturally, the price of admission is to tell a story, and so they do.

Yes, I’m sure some of you will be thinking not another pandemic novel, but whether we like it or not it is a cataclysmic and pivotal event that will go down in the history books as hugely important and significant. Many of us are still living with the aftermath, and let’s face it, the wretched thing is still here. Some of us are still trying to make process and make sense of it and this is where books like this come in. In many ways this is very unlike any other pandemic novels I’ve read. You do get references such as the gloomy statistics and tolling symbolically in the background are the bells of Saint Patrick. However, the main focus here is the stories that each of them tell. You get their backgrounds or things they’ve done (which are not necessarily true!) stories of the people in their lives, their reflections, the state of the country or the world, the injustice and it does become quite philosophical at times. It leads to them forming a daily rhythm and a release from the isolation of Covid rules. They make connections and become neighbourly, they recall the loss of loved ones and get reminders of their own mortality.

Although many of the stories are genuinely interesting, it does get a bit overwhelming by about 60%, the pace has slowed down and I find my attention has drifted. However, that brilliant, unpredictable ending nails the book for for me. I so don’t expect that, but it feels perfect and so raises it to a justifiable four stars.

It is exceptionally well written, it’s lively, it flows and it’s so well edited you actually wouldn’t know it’s a collaboration. I’m glad I don’t know who wrote what until the end as it may have swayed me in some ways. A big shout out to for the very clever use of literary references, especially Shakespeare and Boccaccio’s Decameron. How appropriate. It’s very different, it’s thoughtful, intelligent, and very acutely and well observed.

With thanks to NetGalley and especially to Random House, Vintage for the much appreciated arc in return for an honest review.

This book is a collaborative novel with extracts and writing from several well-known authors, although you don’t find out until the end of the book who contributed and wrote to each chapter. The story follows an apartment building and its occupants in New York throughout the Covid pandemic in 2020. Each occupant of the apartment building tells a story when they meet on the rooftop every evening, covering stories about love, loss and ghosts.

I didn’t really know what to expect from this as I’ve never read a collaborative novel with so many different authors and different writing styles but this book was excellently written and very fluid throughout.

Some chapters were easier to read and follow than others and there were a few chapters where I lost interest because the story was a bit harder to work out.

The ending was completely unexpected and really very interesting.

Thank you to NetGalley and Vintage Books for the eARC of this book.

I'm not a short story fan, but the idea of a collaborative novel set during lockdown intrigued me. There are so many well known writers involved with this and what I liked was that as you read you do not know who is writing which section. It is not set out as a collection of short stories, what we have is an apartment block at the start of lockdown in New York and our main character - I suppose - is the superintendent of the block. Every evening she and some of those who live in the block gather on the rooftop to cheer for the health workers and then they tell stories, some about their own lives and so just stories. The chapters are headed Day One, Day Two etc and each day/evening sees these people gather to cheer and tell stories and argue between themselves. For me this did not read like a short story collection, it was more a chance to sit and watch and listen to a group of people - which is what our superintendent does, as she sits with her thermos of alcohol recording not only the stories beng told but the numbers of cases and deaths. This is a sobering reminder of a period that we all lived through and although not everyone of the residents stories grabbed my attention, the residents themselves as I came to know them over the fourteen days did. An original idea. Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for kindly providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I was so excited by this book but it struggled to hold my attention. It started off well but some of the stories weren’t as interesting and I felt myself drifting off, and then it was hard to get back in.

Parts of this were compelling but it overall, it fell flat for me. I just felt like my attention was waining for most of it.

So many great authors here! It was great to be able to read their work but also to see the impact on lockdown on storytelling and see the world we lived through be explored in fiction.

I was excited to get my hands on Fourteen Days but I did find it a bit of an uneven reading experience. I enjoyed the parts with the main character and her relationship with her father more than some of the other stories which I found harder to sustain my interest but maybe that is to be expected from a collaborative effort.

I loveeeeed this at first, I found all the stories and characters so incredibly interesting. I also really liked the writing style, and not knowing which author was responsible for which chapter. However, the middle of the book started to drag a little and I found myself skim reading here and there because I was more interested in the present day characters than their pasts. The ending saved the book for me, I won’t spoil it but I think this encapsulates the pandemic incredibly well and felt almost like a time capsule.

A book like this, written by a number of excellent authors, was only ever going to go two ways - a masterpiece or a disjointed mess

Thankfully, for me, it was the former and not the latter. Whilst some people may not enjoy reading about COVID, lockdown etc. I really enjoyed this novel in its ambition and execution

Wow what a fantastic book with some amazing authors.

Completely different to anything I’ve read before but really enjoyable.

It begins one week into lockdown in New York and is a sobering reminder of what life what like a few years ago. A powerful story .

Thanks to Netgalley and Random House UK,Vintage for an advance copy in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.

I should have listened to my inner voice that reminded me I don't really get on with short stories, and not be swayed by the names , ALL the names.
Such a superbly brilliant idea... and there were times I thought this was more than living up to its promise... but at times it just felt disjointed to me.
Clever, original and somewhat entertaining non the less.

This time round, I think it might just be me.