“I’ve written 40 books,” says bestselling U.S. author Douglas Preston. “Without doubt, this was the most difficult literary project I’ve ever worked on.”
The project in question is “Fourteen Days,” the new collaborative novel edited by Preston and Margaret Atwood, and containing stories written by 36 individual North American authors. Set during the early days of the 2020 COVID-19 lockdowns in New York City, the novel focuses on a group of essential workers and lower-income renters in a decrepit apartment building who take to the roof to congregate in a socially distanced setting and tell each other stories to pass the time and maintain a semblance of community and social engagement.
Steven W. Beattie is a writer in Stratford, Ontario