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 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?BIRTHS, DEATHS AND MARRIAGESis 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, the possibility of second chances, about kindness and joy. It's about births, deaths, marriages...and everything in between.

The new novel from the author of number one bestseller The Versions of Us. 'Barnett has that rare talent, like Curtis Sittenfeld or Kate Atkinson, of building up the mundane aspects of everyday life until they acquire meaning' THE TIMES. 'Barnett excels herself in this mesmerising ballad of a book...Greatest Hits is not just about music, it's about people: their ambitions, friendships and flaws. An absolute must read' STYLIST. If you could choose just sixteen moments to define your entire life, what would they be? Cass Wheeler has seen it all - from the searing heights of success, to earth-shattering moments of despair. She has known passion, envy, pride, fear, and love. She has been a daughter, a mother, a singer, a lover. A musician born in 1950, Cass is now taking one day to select the sixteen songs in her repertoire that have meant the most to her. And behind each song lies a story - from the day her mother abandoned her, to her passionate first love, to the moment she lost everything. The dreams, the failures, the second chances. But what made her disappear so suddenly from her public life and, most importantly, can she find her way back? Biographical Notes. Laura Barnett is a writer, journalist and theatre critic. She has been on staff at the Guardian and the Daily Telegraph, and writes for a number of national newspapers and magazines.Laura was born in 1982 in south London, where she now lives with her husband. Her debut novel, The Versions of Us , was a Number One bestseller, with rights sold in 24 countries and television rights optioned by Trademark Films.