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Births, Deaths and Marriages
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  • Published: 12 July 2025
  • ISBN: 9780857529718
  • Imprint: Doubleday
  • Format: Hardback
  • Pages: 368
  • RRP: $45.00

Births, Deaths and Marriages

  • Laura Barnett
Formats & editions
Tr. Paperback
17 June 2025
EBook
12 June 2025
Audiobook
5 June 2025
Hardback
12 July 2025
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From the Number One bestselling author of The Versions of Us comes a story of six lifelong friends and one extraordinary year. Four Weddings and a Funeral for a new generation.

From Sunday Times Number 1 bestselling author of Richard & Judy Book Club Pick, The Versions of Us, a beautiful novel about six lifelong friends and one unforgettable year, perfect for fans of David Nicholls and Jojo Moyes.

‘A perfect, can’t-put-down summer read!’ Red

‘A beautifully written story about second chances…couldn’t turn the pages fast enough’ Heat

'Relatable, funny, moving and hopeful… a fantastic read’ 5-star reader review
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Six friends who were inseparable at university find themselves reunited at an engagement party twenty years later...

Rob is a history teacher, with a string of broken relationships behind him. Yas is a surgeon and very much her own woman. Indie is married and a successful coffee entrepreneur. Rachel is a stay-at-home mum with two children. Al, widowed young, is about to take over his father's funeral business.

When Rob's engagement party throws the gang together once more, some passions are reignited, old connections and resentments resurface.

Over the next twelve months, there will, among the friends, be a birth, a marriage, and a death – but whose?

Births, Deaths And Marriages is an era-spanning, globe-trotting novel about love, friendship, and how to stay at least relatively sane in an ever crazier world. It’s about a group of friends growing older, the possibility of second chances, about kindness and joy.

It’s about births, deaths, marriages... and everything in between.

Praise for Laura Barnett and Births Deaths and Marriages:

‘My first read by Laura Barnett and won’t be my last…richly written and so moving’ Jennie Godfrey, Sunday Times bestselling author of The List of Suspicious Things

‘A must-read’ Closer

‘I loved Births, Deaths and Marriages. Laura’s ability to jump between so many different lives and to keep those strands alive in the reader’s mind reminded me of Blue Sisters by Coco Mellors’ Georgina Moore, Sunday Times bestselling author of The Garnett Girls

'A compelling and comforting read that reminds us about the power, support and importance of found family' Kate Sawyer, Costa Prize shortlisted author of The Stranding

‘Barnett has that rare talent, like Curtis Sittenfeld or Kate Atkinson, of building up the mundane aspects of everyday life until they acquire meaning’ The Times

Readers love Births, Deaths & Marriages:

‘Four Weddings and a Funeral meets One Day...I couldn't put it down.’

'A rich, emotional read. I laughed, I cried, and I found myself rooting for each of them.'

'An emotional, heartfelt book about the joys and sorrows of life. It is about love in all its forms, the friendships that shape us, and the quiet moments that define who we become.'

'Perfect blend of humour, poignancy, and authenticity'

‘Wow! Just wow! A book for anyone who has loved, for anyone who has experienced the death of a loved one, for anyone who has contemplated or been married, for every parent, indeed, for anyone who has lived.’

‘A hugely enjoyable novel which celebrates the durability of friendships that have weathered the storm of growing up.’

'Relatable, funny, moving and hopeful — a fantastic, life-affirming read.'

'Characters so real you feel they could be your friends.'

'A celebration of life’s milestones and the friendships that endure them.'

'I couldn’t bear to leave that world behind — I wanted more!'
  • Published: 12 July 2025
  • ISBN: 9780857529718
  • Imprint: Doubleday
  • Format: Hardback
  • Pages: 368
  • RRP: $45.00
Categories:

Praise for Births, Deaths and Marriages

Laura Barnett skilfully handles a large cast of characters, who we come to adore and champion, as she weaves a compelling tale about love and friendship in all its guises. Her exquisite line by line writing and astute character observations held me rapt. A novel to be devoured.

Lucy Clarke, author of The Castaways and One of the Girls

I loved Births, Deaths and Marriages. Laura’s ability to jump between so many different lives and to keep those strands alive in the reader’s mind reminded me of Blue Sisters by Coco Mellors.

Georgina Moore, author of The Garnett Girls

Wonderful . . . beautifully written, superbly characterized and so truthful

Elizabeth Buchan, author of Two Women in Rome

A book to sink into... a nuanced, compelling and comforting read that reminds us about the power, support and importance of found family

Kate Sawyer, author of This Family and The Stranding

Through tragedy, triumphs, the settling of old scores and the blossoming of love, the nuances of their friendship are beautifully portrayed. A perfect, can't-put-down summer read!

Red

Immersive ... It's so good at capturing the feeling many of us have that life hasn't quite worked out as planned - so relatable.

Good Housekeeping

A beautifully written story about second chances. We couldn’t turn the pages fast enough.

Heat

A beautiful read.

Bella Magazine

A must-read.

Closer

Full of life's ups and downs . . . There'll be a lot of head nodding as you read this; it will bring you back to house sharing with friends and memories of being a student and feeling invincible.

Belfast Telegraph

A luminous life-affirming read.

Woman's Own

Births, Deaths and Marriages is my first read by Laura Barnett and it won’t be my last. About family, friendship, love and grief it follows the lives of a group of friends and their gloriously imperfect lives. Richly written and so moving.

Jennie Godfrey, author of The List of Suspicious Things

This measured, quietly poignant book will make you examine your own friendships, the ones you have clung to and those that have fallen away, as well as the choices you make as an adult, and how they might have sat with your 20-year old self.

PA Media

A lovely, absorbing read

Daily Mirror
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