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Title details for The Three of Us by Ore Agbaje-Williams - Available

The Three of Us

by Ore Agbaje-Williams
Jake Fairbrother
Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
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1 of 1 copy available
Best Book of the Year
Time • Real Simple • Oprah Daily
A Belletrist Book Club Pick
"As short and sharp as a pairing knife . . . Moves along so briskly and with such sly wit . . . Deliciously wicked." —Ron Charles, The Washington Post
Long-standing tensions between a husband, his wife, and her best friend finally come to a breaking point in this sharp domestic comedy of manners, told brilliantly over the course of one day.
What if your two favorite people hated each other with a passion?
The wife has it all. A big house in a nice neighborhood, a ride-or-die snarky best friend, Temi, with whom to laugh about facile men, and a devoted husband who loves her above all else—even his distaste for Temi.
On a seemingly normal day, Temi comes over to spend a lazy afternoon with the wife: drinking wine, eating snacks, and laughing caustically about the husband's shortcomings. But when the husband comes home and a series of confessions are made, the wife's two confidants are suddenly forced to jockey for their positions, throwing everyone's integrity into question—and their long-drawn-out territorial dance, carefully constructed over years, into utter chaos. 
Told in three taut, mesmerizing parts—the wife, the husband, the best friend—over the course of one day, The Three of Us is a subversively comical, wildly astute, and painfully compulsive triptych of domestic life that explores cultural truths, what it means to defy them, and the fine line between compromise and betrayal when it comes to ourselves and the people we're meant to love.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    May 16, 2023

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9780593672174
      • File size: 127875 KB
      • Duration: 04:26:24

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      March 6, 2023
      In Agbaje-Williams’s intoxicating debut, a Nigerian housewife’s protective husband and freewheeling best friend vie for her loyalty and affection over the course of a single day. The unnamed wife grapples with the prospect of pregnancy, which she sees as a “ritual performed out of responsibility rather than desire.” Her dilemma is complicated by a visit from her childhood best friend, Temi. Back in college, the self-seeking and brash Temi coaxed her friend out of her shell of reticence and fear, but in the meantime her conservative husband, also unnamed, has led her into a traditional gender role. Temi fears her friend is regressing into a “woman who is silent and subservient,” and the husband, of course, has grown tired of Temi’s presence and wants to start a family. The narrative unfolds as a triptych, each character helming a section from their point of view to wondrous and wearying effects as they retell and relitigate the same events. There’s not much of a plot, though it’s delicious to watch the characters’ long-fermenting tensions come to the fore. It lands as a discerning debut from an author who knows a thing or two (or three) about the ever-shifting dynamics of intimacy.

    • Library Journal

      June 10, 2024

      Agbaje-Williams's debut follows three British Nigerians--a wife, her best friend, and her husband--circling the ins and outs of their rapidly deteriorating relationship. The novel is divided into three distinct segments, with Tariy� Peterside giving voice to the wife, Jake Fairbrother narrating the part of the husband, and T'Nia Miller performing the role of Temi, the wife's best friend and the only named character. Temi settles in for a long day of drinking with the wife, but her visit is immediately overshadowed with tension. Temi has never liked the husband and has always expected the wife to stand by their college pledge never to let a man come between them. Now the husband and wife are trying for a baby, and she seethes with frustration and agitation. Each narrator brings out different facets of the characters' personalities, often at odds with what others see. Peterside reveals the wife's love for Temi and her husband, although she is outwardly passive and indecisive; Fairbrother simmers with rage at Temi's manipulative misdeeds; and Miller brings out Temi's breathless, somewhat unhinged intensity. VERDICT Agbaje-Williams captures the layers of hurt, love, and expectation inherent in marriage, relationships, and friendship. An intoxicating, constantly shifting listen.--Ilka Gordon

      Copyright 2024 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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