Fourteen Days

Set in a Lower East Side tenement in the early days of the COVID-19 lockdowns, Fourteen Days is a surprising and irresistibly propulsive novel in which each character in this diverse, eccentric cast of New York neighbours has been secretly written by a different major literary voice — from Margaret Atwood and Douglas Preston to Tommy Orange and Celeste Ng.

One week into the COVID-19 shutdown, tenants of a Lower East Side apartment building in Manhattan begin to gather on the rooftop and tell stories. With each passing night, more neighbours arrive, bringing chairs, milk crates and overturned pails. Gradually the tenants — some of whom have barely spoken to each other — become real neighbours.

In this Decameron-like serial novel, general editor Margaret Atwood, Authors Guild president Douglas Preston, and a star-studded list of contributors create a beautiful ode to the people who couldn't get away from the city when the pandemic hit.

A dazzling, heartwarming and ultimately surprising narrative, Fourteen Days reveals how, beneath the horrible loss and suffering, some communities managed to become stronger.

Includes writing by Margaret Atwood, Douglas Preston, Celeste Ng, Emma Donoghue, Dave Eggers, John Grisham, Diana Gabaldon, Ishmael Reed, Meg Wolitzer, Luis Alberto Urrea, James Shapiro, Sylvia Day, Mary Pope Osborne, Monique Truong, Hampton Sides, R. L. Stine, Scott Turow, Tommy Orange, and more.