Us by David Nicholls. The first book from Nicholls, One Day, was an endearing and unusual love story (of sorts) that examined an unlikely two-decade relationship between Dex Mayhew and Em Morley, told on the same day of each year. With his new novel, Nicholls  offers up another relationship tale, this one focused on a long-term marriage between Douglas and Connie, who live more or less happily in the suburbs with their moody 17-year-old son, Albie. Then on the eve of a month-long tour of European capitals, Connie announces that she thinks she wants a divorce.

Narrated from Douglas's endearingly honest and often witty perspective, Us is the story of a man trying to rescue his relationship with the woman he loves, and learning how to get closer to a son who's always felt like a stranger.


Revival by Stephen King. The master of horror and suspense returns with his second novel of this year (after Mr. Mercedes), a supernatural tale about addiction, fanaticism, and what might exist on the other side of life.
The book's narrator is Jamie Morton, whose life intertwines with the Reverend Charles Jacobs over the course of several decades.

In a small New England town, a new minister arrives with an attractive wife and child. Since this is Stephen King, bad things start to happen, and when tragedy strikes the Jacobs family, the charismatic preacher curses God, mocks all religious belief, and is banished from the shocked town. Meanwhile, Jamie has demons of his own. Discovering the guitar at age 13, he ends up an itinerant musician, living the nomadic lifestyle of bar-band rock and roll while fleeing from his family's horrific loss. In his 30s - addicted to heroin, stranded, and desperate - Jamie meets Jacobs again, and the latter's new fascination with electricity and healing has profound consequences for both.