The Best of Adam Sharp

March 6, 2017
In Simsion’s third novel (after The Rosie Effect), an email from an old flame, Angelina Brown, spurs British computer guy Adam Sharp to reassess what he wants from life. Though their affair was short-lived and over two decades before, Adam still believes Angelina is his soul mate. He’s been involved with Claire for decades, but their relationship is mostly practical, and a business deal might require her to move from England to the U.S. Email flirtations with Angelina escalate into Skype conversations and culminate in an invitation to join Angelina and her affable husband, Charlie, at their vacation house in France. At this point, Sharp’s book takes an unexpected turn. What seems like a run-of-the-mill chick-lit tale about “the one that got away” becomes a complicated exploration of marriage, what it means to love someone, and how life gets in the way. Adam propels himself into this situation assuming he knows how things are going to play out. Charlie turns out to be more than his amiable, accommodating first impression would indicate, and Angelina shows facets of herself that are a touch more complicated than the girl-of-Adam’s-dreams trope. The contrast almost makes this feel like two different novels. The story winds down with a great passive-aggressive song trivia contest, and Simsion delivers an ending that feels hard-won and true, though readers will have to tough out getting there with a little patience.

July 8, 2016
This new offering from The Rosie Project’s Graeme Simsion is another poignant glimpse into human relationships—what it is to love and to be loved. Adam Sharp, a 40-something database architect, is content. He lives in the UK with a wife he loves (when he sees her), regularly attends pub trivia nights with his mates, and has his music. Out of the blue, Adam’s Great Lost Love, Angelina, contacts him, and with a single ‘hi’ brings his world grinding to a halt. His memories of their short time together in Melbourne in the 1980s reveal a brief but intense love affair, but why is Angelina contacting now? What kind of couple could they have become? Can they be that now? Readers looking for the same laugh-out-loud schadenfreude or viscerally discomforting social awkwardness of Simsion’s ‘Rosie’ books won’t find it in The Best of Adam Sharp, where Adam’s ‘what if?’ ponderings feel more confusing and frustrating. The story is littered with references to some brilliant songs from the 1960s and 1970s, and Simsion includes a playlist for readers to listen to while reading. While not as funny as Simsion’s first novels, The Best of Adam Sharp hits you right in the morals and leaves you thinking—how far would you go for a second chance? Louise Fay is the special orders manager at Dymocks Adelaide