Births, Deaths and Marriages

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What to expect

Brought to you by Penguin.

Zoe, Al, Rachel, Rob, Yas and Indie. Six friends who were inseparable at university, who have all had their secret or not so secret passions for each other, their own hopes and fears.

Over the years, they have gone their separate ways. Rob is a history teacher, with a string of broken relationships behind him. Yas is a surgeon and very much her own woman. Indie is married and a successful coffee entrepreneur. Rachel is a stay at home mum with two children. Al, widowed young, is about to take over his father's funeral business.

When Rob's engagement party throws the gang together once more, some passions are reignited, old connections and resentments resurface. Over the next twelve months, there will, among the friends, be a birth, a marriage, and a death – but whose?

Set over one year and told from multiple perspectives, BIRTHS, DEATHS AND MARRIAGES is an era-spanning, globe-trotting novel about love, friendship, and how to stay at least relatively sane in an ever crazier world. It’s about a group of friends growing older, a pair of sometime lovers finding their way back to each other, about kindness and joy. It’s about births, deaths, marriages, and everything in between.

© Laura Barnett 2025 (P) Penguin Audio 2025

Critics Review

This is exactly the book I want to hold me, with its thoroughness, its thoughtfulness… gentle, moving, immensely readable.
Pandora Sykes
Births, Deaths and Marriages is my first read by Laura Barnett and it won’t be my last. About family, friendship, love and grief it follows the lives of a group of friends and their gloriously imperfect lives. Richly written and so moving.
Jennie Godfrey, author of The List of Suspicious Things
A book to sink into... a nuanced, compelling and comforting read that reminds us about the power, support and importance of found family
Kate Sawyer, author of This Family and The Stranding
A luminous life-affirming read.
Woman's Own
I loved Births, Deaths and Marriages. Laura’s ability to jump between so many different lives and to keep those strands alive in the reader’s mind reminded me of Blue Sisters by Coco Mellors.
Georgina Moore, author of The Garnett Girls
Through tragedy, triumphs, the settling of old scores and the blossoming of love, the nuances of their friendship are beautifully portrayed. A perfect, can't-put-down summer read!
Red
A must-read.
Closer
A lovely, absorbing read
Daily Mirror
Full of life's ups and downs . . . There'll be a lot of head nodding as you read this; it will bring you back to house sharing with friends and memories of being a student and feeling invincible.
Belfast Telegraph
Immersive ... It's so good at capturing the feeling many of us have that life hasn't quite worked out as planned - so relatable.
Good Housekeeping

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