Everyone Is Still Alive

Critics Review

• A total triumph: compelling, compassionate, insightful, funny and moving

  Nina Stibbe

• Incredibly tender and astonishingly insightful. I cared so deeply for the characters and read in genuine awe. An utter gem

  Marian Keyes

• Touching, tender and profound in its warmth and stillness – a novel that explores family, friendship, grief and love in true, tactile detail. Beautiful and very real

  Daisy Buchanan

• A novel of radical empathy and kindness, written with poignancy, wit and immaculate observation. There is something wholeheartedly decent and human about Rentzenbrink’s writing, which has a lingering, gentle power. I can’t stop thinking about it

  Elizabeth Day

• Sharply observed and utterly compelling, Everyone Is Still Alive had me cackling on one page and crying the next; Cathy Rentzenbrink’s warmth and wisdom are evident in every line

  Paula Hawkins

• Unputdownable – brilliant, beautiful, moving and so funny and well-observed. If you want to know what Happily Ever After looks like, read this

  Philippa Perry

• A soothing, tender story with loveable characters who pull you in from the very first pages. In a world of chaos, reading this novel was a reminder to slow down, zoom in and look around

  Emma Gannon

• An anti-romantic comedy of Lego and disenchantment, shot through with clear-eyed compassion . . . I devoured it

  Patrick Gale

• I love this book. Funny, wise and clever and full of honesty and kindness. It’s a page-turner that makes you look at yourself and your relationships anew. A unique and generous novel about love, loss and friendship

  Kit de Waal, author of My Name Is Leon

• A wonderful novel . . . I loved it. Gorgeous and tender, fabulous at capturing time, place and atmosphere. An utter treat

  Kate Mosse

• Such a beautiful, delicate book

  Jenny Colgan

• Everyone Is Still Alive is a novel filled with quiet compassion about quotidian lives. Cathy writes with incredible insight about marriage, friendship and parenthood, in a book replete with hope. I absolutely loved it

  Hannah Beckerman

• Very funny but also sharp and poignant . . . I thoroughly enjoyed it

  Adele Geras

• A beautifully written and exquisitely rendered novel about family and the anxiety of the modern world. Like life, it’s both heartbreakingly sad and terribly funny. I devoured it

  Wyl Menmuir, author of The Many

• Readers will know Rentzenbrink from her moving memoirs The Last Act of Love and A Manual For Heartache. This is her first novel and it sounds equally poignant, warm and wise

  Good Housekeeping, Books We're Most Looking Forward To in 2021

• Kind and real, funny and touching. I raced through it

  Bookbrunch

• Every generation needs its own novels examining how marriage, children, dreams and ambitions can coexist. This one does it beautifully, with warmth, truth, humour and love

  Louisa Young

• …the characters are sharply drawn and the author has a knack for wry phrases… if you like Motherland, you’ll love this funny, tender book.

  The Sunday Times

• One of the most honest, poignant and well-observed books about family life we’ve ever read… full of wisdom, you’ll be clutching your heart for a long time.

  Woman & Home, Book of the Month

• One of the most honest, poignant and well-observed books about family life. Rentzenbrink takes you by the hand and reassures you, you’re not alone . . . Full of wisdom

  Woman

• An eloquent, moving, warm and witty exploration of modern life, with the focus on friendship and family it’s just gorgeous

  Lovereading

• We recognise that this is a book about going to new places and the fear of new people, but also about the comfort of community, the way that even a place like Magnolia Road can be a source of the kind of friendship and support that gets you through even the darkest times

  Observer

• A compassionate and insightful look at relationships and friendships in a wonderfully well-observed novel that is tender, sharp and, at times, very funny

  Sunday Express

• Told with a gentle touch, this is an honest and emotional look at marriage and parenthood

  Sun on Sunday, Fabulous

• Warm-hearted and perceptive

  The Times

• One for fans of the TV show Motherland, this is a touching drama about the minutiae of family life set on a street in west London. An impressive debut from an accomplished memoirist

  The i, 40 Best Books for Summer

• Brilliantly caustic

  Alex Preston, Guardian