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From the best-selling author of Ghosts and Everything I Know About Love: a story of heartbreak and friendship and how to survive both.
Andy loves Jen. Jen loved Andy. And he can't work out why she stopped.
Now he is...
>
Without a home
Waiting for his stand-up career to take off
Wondering why everyone else around him seems to have grown up while he wasn't looking
Set adrift on the sea of heartbreak, Andy clings to the idea of solving the puzzle of his ruined relationship. Because if he can find the answer to that, then maybe Jen can find her way back to him. But Andy still has a lot to learn, not least his ex-girlfriend's side of the story…
In this sharply funny and exquisitely relatable story of romantic disaster and friendship, Dolly Alderton offers up a love story with two endings, demonstrating once again why she is one of the most exciting writers today, and the true voice of a generation.
What are you reading this week? And what did you think of last week’s books? (6/4/2026)
...ther has dementia and so can't provide answers to the questions that arise. This is a beautiful debut novel based on the author's own family history. Good Material by Dolly Alderton. In a departure from romance and a twist on the break-up story this novel tells of a relationship gone wrong from the guy's perspective. He doesn't u...
-Anne_Glasgow
What are you reading this week? And what did you think of last week’s books? (2/12/2026)
I just finished "Good Material" by Dolly Alderton. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I have been reading material mentioned or recommended in other books and by the authors of books I have enjoyed. It all started with Clare Poole. I read and emceed her book "Iona Iverson's Rules for Commuting" for book cl...
-Wendy_K
Book Club Reading List 2026
...The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden Mar 11 - Audition by Katie Kitamura Apr 8 - Endling by Maria Reva May 13 - Black in Blues by Imani Perry Jun 10 - Good Material by Dolly Alderton July – no meeting Aug 12 - The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Kiran Desai Sep 9 - Flesh by David Szalay Oct 14 - North Woods by Daniel Mason Nov 17...
-Anne_Glasgow
"Like Nora Ephron, with a British twist….Good Material…delivers the most delightful aspects of classic romantic comedy—snappy dialogue, realistic relationship dynamics, humorous meet-cutes and misunderstandings—and leaves behind the clichéd gender roles and traditional marriage plot…..Alderton excels at portraying nonromantic intimate relationships with tenderness and authenticity….Alderton deserves comparisons to rom-com legends like Hornby." —The New York Times
"Hilarious...Hurts so good...Surprising and sharp...[Alderton's] ability to create complex characters and tell the story with a varied perspective is masterful...Perfect endings are nearly impossible to find—especially in the break-up genre—but this comes pretty dang close. To quote the great Nicole Kidman, in her iconic AMC prologue, 'Heartbreak feels good in a place like this." —USA Today
"Dolly Alderton has always been a sparkling Roman candle of talent. She is funny, smart and explosively engaged in the wonders and weirdness of the world." —Elizabeth Gilbert, New York Times best-selling author of City of Girls
"Wickedly funny and, at turns, both cynical and sincere, Dolly Alderton's voice feels like your very favorite friend." —Taylor Jenkins Reid, #1 New York Times best-selling author of Carrie Soto is Back
This information about Good Material was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Dolly Alderton is an award-winning author, screenwriter and journalist based in London. She is a columnist for the Sunday Times Style magazine and has also written for GQ, Red, Marie Claire, and Grazia. She is the former co-host and co-creator of the podcast The High Low. Her books include Ghosts, Dear Dolly, and Everything I Know About Love, which was a New York Times best seller, won a National Book Award (UK) for Autobiography of the Year and was made into a TV series.
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