A Big Chill for our times, celebrating decades-long friendships and promises—especially to ourselves—by the bestselling and beloved author of The Guncle.
It’s been a minute—or five years—since Jordan Vargas last saw his college friends, and twenty-eight years since their graduation when their adult lives officially began. Now Jordan, Jordy, Naomi, Craig, and Marielle find themselves at the brink of a new decade, with all the responsibilities of adulthood, yet no closer to having their lives figured out. Though not for a lack of trying. Over the years they’ve reunited in Big Sur to honor a decades-old pact to throw each other living “funerals,” celebrations to remind themselves that life is worth living—that their lives mean something, to one another if not to themselves.
But this reunion is different. They’re not gathered as they were to bolster Marielle as her marriage crumbled, to lift Naomi after her parents died, or to intervene when Craig pleaded guilty to art fraud. This time, Jordan is sitting on a secret that will upend their pact.
A deeply honest tribute to the growing pains of selfhood and the people who keep us going, coupled with Steven Rowley’s signature humor and heart, The Celebrants is a moving tale about the false invincibility of youth and the beautiful ways in which friendship helps us celebrate our lives, even amid the deepest challenges of living.
THE CELEBRANTS
Steven Rowley
I had so much fun with Jordan and friends while reading Rowley’s latest contemporary fiction title, THE CELEBRANTS. Out now!
A group of friends: Jordan, Jordy, Naomi, Craig, and Marielle have known each other for decades. They meet to give one of their members a “living funeral” whenever someone needs it. Something they have done over the years as a tribute to their friendship and each other.
They meet and eulogize each other in life before death. This year one of the members of their friend group has a secret. And it’s going to change everything as they’ve always known it.
This book is a celebration of life and friendship, the ties that bind, what endures through the years, and what changes. I loved the idea of celebrating those you love in life when you still have the chance.
This is my first time reading Rowley and now that I know what to expect I’ll reach for his books when I’m looking for a feel-good book with great friendship dynamics.
Thanks to Netgalley, PENGUIN GROUP Putnam, G.P. Putnam’s Sons, and Penguin Random House Audio for the advanced copies!
THE CELEBRANTS…⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
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