Books Like Conversations with Friends

The Days of our Birth

Charlie Laidlaw

Peter and Sarah grow up living next door to one another in a small town in the east of Scotland. They also share the same birthday. He’s not so bright, but she’s formidably intelligent. She’s also autistic, and can’t understand why nobody except Peter likes her. The days of our birth follows Peter and Sarah over twenty years. His journey into adulthood is fairly effortless; hers, more complex. It explores how two very different people can grow up as best friends, but never quite understand why they’re best friends and what they really feel about one another. The book, filled with humour and poignancy, is an exploration of how people change, the things we could have said and done and, sometimes, how we can make things right again. Peter and Sarah are finally forced to confront what they really feel, about themselves and about each other. For them, it is also about realising that love and friendship mean more than the sum of their differences.