Births, Deaths And Marriages by Laura Barnett

 

Twenty years after first meeting at university, a group of six friends grapple with big events in their lives over the space of a year.

When I saw that Births, Deaths And Marriages by Laura Barnett was being described as a cross between Four Weddings And A Funeral and One Day I leapt at the chance to read it as both feature characters you feel a connection with, individuals you wanted to succeed, people you cared about.

In Births, Deaths And Marriages we meet our six main characters, Yas, Rachel, Zoe, Rob, Indie and Al towards the end of their second year at university in London. Having formed a bond early on in the first year, four of the group have moved in together, but the other two are at the house so often it's as if all six live together. Twenty years later and the individuals haven't moved far, with the majority still living in London. While they don't meet up as often as they would like, they have remained in contact. It is Rob's upcoming wedding that sees the group connecting more frequently.

Over the space of a year, we learn that the lives of each individual have varied greatly, some have achieved their ambitions, others have given up careers to start a family and some have found themselves doing things they had never dreamed of. At the age of twenty, they all assumed that twenty years later they'd have their lives sorted, but we discover that unexpected events get in the way. Reading the book I was reminded of the saying "Man plans and God laughs" as this really summed up the story.

Although all of the characters are personable I really didn't engage with any of them apart from Al, who came across as philosophical and easy-going. I found the career he'd ended up with, and the changes he wanted to bring about, very interesting. I found the remaining characters quite shallow and some of them were extremely self-centred. This is possibly a book that will resonate more with millennials, who may see themselves, or their circumstances, brought to life by characters they can identify with.

Births, Deaths And Marriages by Laura Barnett will be published on 12th June 2025 in hardback, ebook and audio format. My thanks to NetGalley and Doubleday for a review copy.

Author Details

Laura Barnett is the author of four novels including the number one bestseller, The Versions of Us, Greatest Hits, Gifts and This Beating Heart. As an arts journalist and theatre critic, she has written regularly for the Guardian, Observer, the Daily Telegraph and Time Out London. Laura lives with her husband Andy, son Caleb and cat Eno in rural Kent.