Happy All the Time

With an introduction by Katherine Heiny

'Seriously wise, seriously wonderful, seriously comic - your life will be richer for it' Katherine Heiny

Guido and Vicent - third cousins and best friends - spend their time lolling around and wondering who they will marry.

Then, one wet Sunday afternoon in a museum, Gudio meets Holly. Precise about everything, Holly knows what she likes: pressed sheets, tea on a tray - and now, Guido.

Soon after, Vincent falls for his misanthropic new colleague, Misty. She seems completely uninterested in love, until she agrees to go to dinner with Vincent.

This exquisitely well-written and much-beloved novel follows the two couples through courtship, arguments, wedding plans and other perils, as they find a way to be happy (almost) all the time.

A W&N Essential with an introduction from Katherine Heiny

Reseñas de la Crítica

A jewel of romantic comedy

Uplifting, funny, generous and perspicacious (especially about love), Happy all the Time is one of the most comforting, clever novels I know. (Samantha Ellis)

Featuring possibly the Loveliest line from a book ever - "she felt as well placed in the world as a fresh loaf of bread" - this novel from the witty, warm Colwin about two cousins' search for Love is like literary sunshine

Feels utterly modern . . . A genuine romantic comedy, and a wise and affirming one at that . . . Happiness, Colwin suggests, is not something achieved once and for all, but a process, something you must work at all the time. It's a lesson that has held up for almost fifty years, and I expect it won't go out of date any time soon (Sam Corbett)

A pleasure . . . endless surprises and ultimately boundless joy . . . It would be difficult not to enjoy it all

Delicious with much wit . . . author and reader have the greatest fun

Rare and charming . . . refreshingly soothing

Laurie Colwin was the best kind of master: human and humorous, full of wisdom and love. When am I happy all the time? When I have a stack of Laurie Colwin books beside me (Emma Straub)

Shimmering . . . funny . . . it made everything in my life seem a whole lot better

Amazing! Impossible to put down . . . sharply funny, altogether unusual. I recommend it highly

A funny, loving, celebratory book . . . in which everything is perfect

Merry and bright and tender . . . written in exquisitely balanced sentences that taste just right. Comparison with Jane Austen is not out of order

The cleverly curated new W&N Essentials range launches with Happy All The Time by Laurie Colwin. This sparkling and witty romantic comedy of manners... is like literary serotonin. (Charlotte Heathcote)

it abounds in good lines, aphorisms, advice to both the loved and the lovelorn

An elegant, fresh, funny tale of four people in love . . . There's electricity here . . . Pure delight

Colwin's canny Manhattan pastorale strikes me as at least as much fun to read as Sense and Sensibility

Charming, funny, readable, smart, somewhere to go if you've already hoovered up every last mote of Nora Ephron. My paperback comes with an introduction by the great Katherine Heiny. I don't know what you're waiting for (Nick Hornby)

The book I turn to most during times of romantic despair . . . As well as being enormously comforting it is also captivating, sharp, and very acute on the sexual and social mores of 70s New York - as well as speaking to more eternal philosophical concerns on what it means to be loved, and to love well in return (Sophie Mackintosh)