In the Unlikely Event

By: Judy Blume

Narrated by: Kathleen McInerney

In 1987, Miri returns to her hometown to attend a commemoration of the worst year of her life. Beautiful, gripping and deeply moving, In the Unlikely Event is an unforgettable novel from Judy Blume.

Thirty-five years ago, when Miri Ammerman was fifteen and in love for the first time, three planes fell from the sky within three months, leaving the commmunity of Elizabeth, New Jersey reeling.

The plane crashes bring some people closer together and tear others apart; they create myths and unlock secrets. As Miri experiences the ordinary joys and pains of growing up in extraordinary circumstances, a young journalist makes his name reporting tragedy. And through it all, one generation reminds another that life goes on.

Against this backdrop of actual events in the early 1950s, when airline travel was new and exciting and everyone dreamed of going somewhere, Judy Blume weaves a haunting story of three generations of families, friends, and strangers, whose lives are for ever changed in the aftermath.

©2015 Judy Blume (P)2015 Pan Macmillan Publishers Ltd.

Critic reviews

"A major event... utterly brilliant... Never mind what she has done before: it feels as if this is the book she has been waiting her whole life to write. And it is, quite simply, extraordinary... There’s a wonderful Mad Men feel to the detail of the period... The action is always undercut with Blume’s trademark humanity and humour... Blume’s fans - old and new - will approve." (Observer)

"In The Unlikely Event is Judy Blume’s first book for adults in more than 15 years and before the end of the first chapter you’ll be breathing a happy sigh that the wait is over... Judy Blume is fantastic at assembling a cast of characters so clearly drawn that you’d recognise them in the street and so real that you care deeply about each of them after only a few lines... For those of us who grew up alongside Blume’s beloved teenage characters, this book is a welcome homecoming." (Sunday Express)

"A great portrait of an era... Blume’s hallmark warmth and humanity shine through and there is a loveliness to this novel in its depths of philanthropy and human understanding. It leaves the reader longing to meet the author for a soul-lifting heart-to-heart. The fairy godmother is alive and well." (Joanna Briscoe, Guardian)

"Offers readers the classic Blume experience – a nuanced portrayal of the everyday intricacies of love and friendship but set against a backdrop of extraordinary tragedy... In the Unlikely Event is comfort reading at its most soothing, the turn of its pages like sitting down with a beloved, long-lost friend." (Independent)