Three Days in June

208 pages

English language

Published 2025 by Penguin Random House.

ISBN:: 978-1-78474-576-9

(1 review)

A new Anne Tyler novel destined to be an instant classic: a socially awkward mother of the bride navigates the days before and after her daughter's wedding.

Gail Baines is having a bad day. To start, she loses her job—or quits, depending on whom you ask. Tomorrow her daughter, Debbie, is getting married, and she hasn’t even been invited to the spa day organized by the mother of the groom. Then, Gail’s ex-husband, Max, arrives unannounced on her doorstep, carrying a cat, without a place to stay, and without even a suit.

But the true crisis lands when Debbie shares with her parents a secret she has just learned about her husband to be. It will not only throw the wedding into question but also stir up Gail and Max’s past.

Told with deep sensitivity and a tart sense of humor, full of the joys and heartbreaks of love and …

A new Anne Tyler novel destined to be an instant classic: a socially awkward mother of the bride navigates the days before and after her daughter's wedding.

Gail Baines is having a bad day. To start, she loses her job—or quits, depending on whom you ask. Tomorrow her daughter, Debbie, is getting married, and she hasn’t even been invited to the spa day organized by the mother of the groom. Then, Gail’s ex-husband, Max, arrives unannounced on her doorstep, carrying a cat, without a place to stay, and without even a suit.

But the true crisis lands when Debbie shares with her parents a secret she has just learned about her husband to be. It will not only throw the wedding into question but also stir up Gail and Max’s past.

Told with deep sensitivity and a tart sense of humor, full of the joys and heartbreaks of love and marriage and family life, Three Days in June is a triumph, and gives us the perennially bestselling, Pulitzer Prize–winning writer at the height of her powers

4 editions

Brian Plunkett reviewed Three Days in June by Anne Tyler

Three Days in June (4 Stars)

4 stars

I decided to read this after seeing Anne Tyler's recent interview in The Guardian, where she said: “How we handle day-to-day life as we go through it, with its disappointments and its pleasures, that’s all I want to know.” But also, she's already working on her next novel, and apparently she's done with trying to avoid politics in her books: "It seemed so wrong to have any character going about normal life after that horrendous election." Can't wait to see what she comes up with.

As for Three Days in June, it's Tyler's usual bittersweet and amusing focus on a semi-dysfunctional white family, this time in the context of a wedding. Anyway, what can I say? I'm a fan.

Subjects

American literature