In Five Years

'SMART, EMOTIONAL, INTRIGUING AND COMPELLING - I LOVED IT!' JILL MANSELL

'Full of twists and turns, this is a heart-breaking yet uplifting story about love and friendship, and is one of this year's must-reads' Heat magazine *

Perfect for fans of Me Before You and One Day, this heart-breaking story of love, loss and life will have you questioning everything you thought you knew about destiny...
Where do you see yourself in five years?
Type-A Manhattan lawyer Dannie Kohan has been in possession of her meticulously crafted answer since she understood the question. On the day that she nails the most important job interview of her career and gets engaged to the perfect man, she's well on her way to fulfilling her life goals.
That night Dannie falls asleep only to wake up in a different apartment with a different ring on her finger, and in the company of a very different man. The TV is on in the background, and she can just make out the date. It's the same night - December 15th - but 2025, five years in the future.
It was just a dream, she tells herself when she wakes, but it felt so real... Determined to ignore the odd experience, she files it away in the back of her mind.
That is, until four and a half years later, when Dannie turns down a street and there, standing on the corner, is the man from her dream...
In Five Years is a love story, brimming with joy and heartbreak. But it is definitely not the love story you're expecting.

'What a clever, beautiful, special book. The writing is stunning, the concept is so original - it just has everything going for it. I loved every page!' BETH O'LEARY, author of Sunday Times bestseller The Flatshare

'I adored In Five Years, it's so poignant and tender. It broke my heart' JOSIE SILVER, author of One Day in December

'I loved In Five Years. A beautiful, intelligent story about friendships and love' CLARE MACKINTOSH, Sunday Times bestselling author of After the End

'A rare love story with an unexpected ending' Bella magazine

'I read it in one late night. Very, very clever. And lovely. The end is EXACTLY what it should be' ANSTEY HARRIS, author of Richard & Judy Book Club pick The Truths and Triumphs of Grace Atherton

'In Five Years is as clever as it is moving, the rare read-in-one-sitting novel you won't forget' CHLOE BENJAMIN, author of The Immortalists

'Clever, heartbreaking and beautifully written. The perfect story' HOLLY MILLER, author of The Sight of You

'A wonderfully unique read. Clever, compelling and always surprising' HEIDI SWAIN, Sunday Times bestselling author of The Christmas Wish List

'Smart, clever and achingly beautiful. Not many love stories surprise me, but this one did. I really loved it' DANI ATKINS, bestselling author of Fractured and A Million Dreams

'An exquisite portrayal of friendship and love at its purest. Stunning' EMMA COOPER, author of The Songs of Us

'Deeply moving and emotional - I absolutely adored it' SUSAN ELLIOT WRIGHT, author of The Flight of Cornelia Blackwood

Auteur

Rebecca Serle

Résumé
A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER'This visionary and deeply evocative debut carves a radiant love story out of the bleakest of landscapes.' Waterstones - Best Books to Look Out For in 2021'An Outstanding novel' Guardian'A lyrical, poetic novel' Independent'Epic in its scale' Marlon James, author of Black Leopard, Red Wolf'A rare marvel' Ocean Vuong, author of On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous'Magisterial' Courttia Newland, author of A River Called Time'A spellbinding debut' COSMO'Ambitious and intense' Vanity FairIn this blinding debut, Robert Jones Jr. blends the lyricism of Toni Morrison with the vivid prose of Zora Neale Hurston to characterise the forceful, enduring bond of love, and what happens when brutality threatens the purest form of serenity. The Halifax plantation is known as Empty by the slaves who work it under the pitiless gaze of its overseers and its owner, Massa Paul. Two young enslaved men, Samuel and Isaiah dwell among the animals they keep in the barn, helping out in the fields when their day is done. But the barn is their haven, a space of radiance and love - away from the blistering sun and the cruelty of the toubabs - where they can be alone together.But, Amos - a fellow slave - has begun to direct suspicion towards the two men and their refusal to bend. Their flickering glances, unspoken words and wilful intention, revealing a truth that threatens to rock the stability of the plantation. And preaching the words of Massa Paul's gospel, he betrays them. The culminating pages of The Prophets summon a choral voice of those who have suffered in silence, with blistering humanity, as the day of reckoning arrives at the Halifax plantation. Love, in all its permutations, is the discovery at the heart of Robert Jones Jr's breathtaking debut, The Prophets.