Since the coronavirus pandemic of 2020 lots of novelists are writing their pandemic novel and I read a number of very successful ones. In this book 36.American or Canadian authors, some of which some of whom are extremely well known have contributed chapters The book is edited by Margaret Attwood, who is one of my favourite orders. Because of this, I quickly requested it when I saw it was available on NetGalley, UK
The basic premise of the novel was that during the pandemic of March 2020. All the people living in a block of flats were confined to their flats as boredom an confinement set in the gradually start to meet on the roof of the building in their socially isolated groups, one by one, they start to tell us their stories . The buildings manager at scissor sort of central point to tell stories themselves and introduce you a little bit to the people who are telling the stories.

Ultimately,, whilst I felt that the collaboration was a worthwhile undertaking. I didn’t feel that the novel was very successful. It felt bitty and lacked cohesion. The difference in tone and content of the individual stories was difficult to overlook some of the stories I didn’t enjoy others were not so successful.

I did try and play a little detective game with myself, trying to work out who wish and which chapter as this was not made clear few, I did manage to work out, but the majority was unsure about

I’m sure this novel will sell anything with Margaret Atwood’s name on or make it a popular choice. However, I personally wouldn’t recommend it.

Novel is published in the UK on the 6th of February 2024 by random house UK, vintage.

This review will appear in NetGalley, UK, Goodreads, and my book blog bionicsarasbooks.wordpress.com And Amazon, UK, after the book is published

What a book! Anything with Margaret Atwood’s name on it has my vote, but I usually avoid collaborative texts, feeling ‘less is more’. But this one blew my socks off.
36 Canadian and American writers assume the identity of a persona resident in an apartment block in New York during lockdown.
The new ‘Super’ of the building finds the key to the roof door and the roof becomes her ‘place’.
From this vantage point, she has stupendous views over the city and we get a vivid sense of the impact of lockdown.
Gradually the residents join her (socially distanced, of course), and the stories they want and need to share are told over 14 days.
And so, we are transported from this rooftop into these captivating experiences; funny, wise, brutal, beautiful worlds. Stories are hosted by the self-appointed emcee, Eurovision. And the numbers keep growing. So many voices, so many lives.
And the tragedy of Covid is eventually revealed in for me, a completely unexpected ending.
Who contributed what?
You have to wait, to find out.
Astonishing and brilliant.
Thank you @netgalley and @vintage books for my ARC. What a gift!

This isn't your usual book is short stories where you can dip in and out, it reads more like a novel, a well written thought out clever novel at that.
The book centres around the residents of a apartment block during the Covid pandemic in New York, each night the residents met on the roof to clap for carers then at a social distance to share stories about life. Each resident's story is unique and written by one of the writers from the author list( you are not told who has written them to the end) these tales are woven into the main narrative seamlessly there is some great editing going in this book. Some of stories are better than others as is the case with all short story collections but in the whole they are all well written and have a deeper message, they all have a reflective tone which meets the time of which it's sets perfect. I liked how the framing parts really took the time to explore what it was like during the early days of the pandemic and then how the stories reflected all the various reactions and feelings had about that time, it really was a book that made you ponder and self reflect. This was not what I was expecting at all but I really enjoyed the concept and the plot. I thought not knowing who had written which bits till the end added a extra layer to the prose and allowed me to read work by authors I would have have probably skipped over if the collection was a traditional short story collection. There is great twist that matches the full reflective mood of the book that stays with you. A very smart idea that delivers, by using such a different group of writers to collaborate you get a much deeper sense of understanding of diverse life though sex, race, class and age. A collaborative novel more than a short story collection is the best way to round it up, it works which is surprising when you consider the amount of authors involved and their various styles and genres and while it was was obvious while reading who wrote what when you discover who has written what you can recognise writers you have read before, my favourite story was The Party which was written by Emma Donoghue.

There is much to admire in 'Fourteen Days' with some of the individual stories told being delicate, delightful gems. However overall it is a rather disjointed reading experience, Some of the characters are perfectly depicted and leap from the pages, but somehow the variation in the quality of the writing detracts from the coherence of the whole. Special thank you to Random House UK, Vintage and NetGalley for a no obligation advance review copy.

DNF at 30%. I requested this arc because it looked fun and different. The writing of this flows really well considering it's written by many different authors and I did like the ideas behind it. However, I'm just not connecting to it at all, It's a pleasant read in that a lot of it so far has been reading anecdotes experienced by the people quarantining but overall not something I'd recommend.

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.