Almost Life

A Novel

De: Kiran Millwood Hargrave

Narrado por: Patricia Allison

People “Best Sapphic Historical Romances” • Harper’s Bazaar “Most Anticipated Books Coming Out This Spring” • Autostraddle “Most Anticipated Queer Books for March 2026” • Time “New Books You Should Read in March”

“Hargrave has a great eye and ear for close-focus, intimate scenes. Conversations, sexual encounters, and meals are vividly alive….Laure and Erica are richly drawn, in both heart and mind.” —The New York Times

Two young women meet in Paris one sultry summer in a decades-spanning tour de force about the enduring power of young love and the poignant heartbreak of missed chances—perfect for fans of One Day and Normal People.

Erica and Laure meet on the steps of the Sacré-Coeur in Paris, 1978. Erica is a student, relishing her first summer abroad before beginning university at home in England. Laure is studying for her PhD at the Sorbonne, drinking and smoking far too much, and sleeping with a married woman. The moment the two women meet, the spark is undeniable, but their encounter turns into far more than a summer of love. It is the beginning of a relationship that will define their lives and every decision they have yet to make…

Erica and Laure’s love story spans decades, marriage, children, secret trysts, and the agonizing changes—both personal and political—that might mean they can be together, after all. But when life brings them within touching distance again, will they be brave enough to seize a future together?

Beautifully capturing young love and all its complexities, Almost Life is a story of longing for the paths not taken, and the almost lives we live.

Absolutely recommend

The women in this story are so real to me! I miss them already. Get ready for some sad turns but truly love their love story.

Almost Life broke me a little

It is so painfully beautiful, the way it captures how some of us become tourists in our own lives, watching from the window instead of stepping fully into the room. To all our gardens we need to enter and see for real out there.

I can’t with the French accents

Plain prose, preachy. I fell a bit for seductive Laure (except when she was a squatter), and Erica was insufferable.
The French accents, and the French people speaking to each other in the bad French accents, was painful to listen to. Might have been higher if the book was paperback and not audible.