The Wedding People

‘An excellent gift for almost anyone’ Guardian

By: Alison Espach

Narrated by: Helen Laser

The smash-hit international bestseller
A Read With Jenna book club pick
Winner of the Goodreads Choice Award for Fiction
'Best read of the year' THE TIMES

'Books as fun as this one are few and far between' GUARDIAN

'Sharp, funny and a joy to read' OBSERVER

Phoebe Stone arrives at a grand beachside hotel in Rhode Island wearing her best dress and least comfortable shoes. Immediately she is mistaken for one of the wedding people - but she's actually the only guest at the Cornwall Inn who isn't here for the big event.

When the bride discovers her elaborate destination wedding could be ruined by a divorced and depressed stranger, she is furious. Lila has spent months accounting for every detail and every possible disaster - except for, well, Phoebe . . . Soon, both women find their best-laid plans derailed and an unlikely confidante in one another.

Hilarious and moving, The Wedding People is an irresistible novel about love, friendship, dysfunctional families, and the unexpected paths that lead to happiness.

'As soon as I'd finished it, I wanted to read it all over again' RED

'Laugh-out-loud funny and surprisingly moving' INDEPENDENT

'So funny and romantic . . . A perfect novel' CATHERINE NEWMAN

'Glorious . . . made me wish I had written it' JOJO MOYES

'Utterly charming . . . I loved it' PANDORA SYKES

'One of the few weddings I've attended that I didn't want to end' SAMUEL BURR©2024 Alison Espach

Critic reviews

The Wedding People is the perfect book to wrap up your summer reading. It is heartwarming, hilarious, it's a love story - it's about love, loss and the people who come into our lives and change it forever. You guys are going to love this book! (Jenna Bush Hager, The Today Show's #ReadwithJenna)

The the best read of the year so far

Fans of Sorrow and Bliss will, like me, adore The Wedding People, which is my book of the summer. As soon as I'd finished it, I wanted to read it all over again!

Espach's writing reminds me of Katherine Heiny's - keenly observant, ruthlessly honest, quietly elegant and utterly charming, with the ability to make you quietly weep when you least expect it . . . Nothing turns out the way anybody plans - but exactly as it should. I loved it (Pandora Sykes)

The Wedding People is a wickedly funny and deeply satisfying novel about a woman with nothing to lose, armed with a green dress, some chocolate wine, and a coconut pillow, cut loose to cause delightful mayhem. It's a story of lovers who turn into strangers, strangers who turn into friends, and the weird and wonderful connections that make us feel truly alive. I loved it (Jenny Jackson)

Alison Espach! How does she do it? I mean, really - how? The Wedding People is so utterly, ringingly true it feels less like fiction than like a field guide to personhood. It's so funny and romantic that I sometimes laughed out loud and sometimes got actual goosebumps. I tore through it like I didn't have a disordered deficit of attention. It's a perfect novel. I loved it (Catherine Newman)

I loved it I loved it I loved it. This is pure joy in book form. I want to live in it. I did live in it, in this hotel by the ocean with these people who felt real and made me laugh and ache and WANT things for them. I cannot understate how brilliant it is. Do yourself a favour. Cancel all your plans, and read it. It brought the love back into my reading life, and I suspect it'll have the power to bring love back into readers' normal lives, too, such is the power of a living, breathing, beautiful story like this (Claire Daverley)

The Wedding People is an absolute masterpiece - darkly, achingly funny, deeply moving and just bursting with energy and wisdom. I was unable to put this beautiful novel down and lost a great deal of sleep in the process. Perfection (Rosie Walsh)

Espach is an immensely talented writer, and her prose unfolds with a devastating lightness of touch (Emily St. John Mandel)

I gulped down The Wedding People - I LOVED it! It's such a blast, so much fun to read and so funny, but also full of brilliant insights and heart-wrenching in parts - my favourite kind of book. A joyful reading experience (Emily Itami)

Beautiful storytelling

Loved all these characters and I wish I could have kept on listening to the narrator tell me all about them for longer.

I really loved this book

This was a fantastic book to listen to. It was funny and engaging and relatable in ways. I’ve had this book on my wish list for a while and I’m so pleased I bought it with this months credit.

Smart, thought provoking, funny

I loved how deep the questions posed here were. It’s so hard to be authentically you- when you don’t really know who you are. I liked how the author attempted to answer these existential questions. A must read.

Intriguing

I wasn’t sure I like this at first. If it was supposed to be funny no, I didn’t find it so.
What I did find, tho, was that I became intrigued by what Phoebe needed from the people around her to pull her through her feelings of suicide. I loved how Lila made her feel needed and trusted, and just let her be part of t he wedding party.
For me, the pivotal moment of Phoebe’s story was on the boat having the funeral for Human Princess. Phoebe was able to let go of so much deep hurt and feelings in her private goodbyes. It was the moment she faced forward to live. It was the moment I began to like the book.

Fantastic narration. Supurb caracter development.

So honest and entertaining, the truth of allowing themselves to engage and understand their emotions, told in a humoristic tone. Just funny enough to make you laugh at your own denial. Just serious enough to know that every day is an oppurtunity to start again, laugh again, to allow yourselve to cry at what hurts. Excellent book! totally loved all of it!

One of the best books I've read.

I loved everything, didn't want the book to end. It was funny and different and I just loved all the characters.

Loved it

Such a great read. Touching yet laugh out loud funny at times. Just the book I needed.

SO UNIQUE!

What a fresh story line! Loved it. And then hated some parts, but learned that that was part of it. A must read!

Enjoyable but over-hyped

It was an easy listen but I found some of it a bit unrealistic and cliché. I think my favourite part was the character development but did not really enjoy the storyline.

Gentle hope

This story made me think how human experience can be tragic, suffering may seem endless, and sometimes we can lose hope. But change is the only constant, and it goes both ways. It is a lighthearted message of resilience, that de-dramatises despair and demystifies hope. Thank you to the author for the courage of tackling the subject with much needed humour.