"Told over a single day, this compulsive novel of tension between a woman’s husband and best friend explores aspiration, control, rivalry and loyalty in darkly comic style."
Taut, suspenseful and wryly amusing, Ore Agbaje-Williams’ The Three of Us makes fine use of a closed domestic setting, with three narratives unfolding with escalating tension over the course of a day.
As for that setting, readers are effectively offered a fourth place at the table for three, something like being an unseen voyeur, afforded an intimate perspective on fractious dynamics between a wife, her husband, and her best friend. The wife, whose narrative opens this novel-in-three-parts, appears to live a charmed live. She’s well-educated, with a wealthy husband who works hard and provides for her, and an intensely loyal best friend, Temi. And yet while they both love her, they can’t stand each other, as revealed one afternoon when Temi comes to the couple’s home to hang out and drink lots of wine.
The friend and husband have vastly different ideas about who the wife really is and compete to be the one who knows her best. They’re also diametrically different in every which way - while Temi is “the very creator of chaos and destruction”, the husband demands order and control.
Alongside such glaring conflicts and differences between husband and friend, there are gaps between husband and wife — while he’s set on having children as soon as possible, believing “you’d be a great mother”, she’s not sure she really wants to be a mother. Then there’s the dissonance between self-perception, reality, and the perception of others.
As the trio’s unravelling escalates in the wake of revelations, so too does the humour and insights into human nature.
| Primary Genre | Family Drama |
| Other Genres: | |
| Recommendations: |
Wife. Husband. Best friend. What if your two favourite people hated each other with a passion?
SELECTED AS A BOOK OF 2023 BY THE SUNDAY TIMES, STYLIST AND I-D
A nice house, a carefree life, a doting husband, a best friend who never leaves your side. What more could you ask for? There's just one problem: your husband and best friend love you, but they hate each other.
Set over a single day, husband, wife and best friend Temi toe the lines of compromise and betrayal. Told in three parts, three people's lives, and their visions of themselves and one another begin to slowly unravel, until a startling discovery throws everyone's integrity into question.
Full of intrigue, idiosyncratic wit and a healthy dose of wealth and snobbery The Three of Us is part-suburban millennial comedy of manners and part-domestic noir that will leave you wondering: whose side are you on?
The Three of Us features in the following genres: Family Drama, Debuts, Humorous Fiction, Modern and Contemporary Fiction, Romance / Relationship Stories, Narrative theme: Love and relationships, Narrative theme: Social issues, Narrative theme: Interior life, Fiction, Recommendations, General Fiction, Fiction: narrative themes
The Three of Us is available in Paperback, Hardback
The Three of Us was written by Ore Agbaje-Williams and published by Vintage an imprint of Random House
The Three of Us has 188 pages
£8.99
