скачать книгу бесплатно
How to Fall in Love
Cecelia Ahern
‘A tender, funny and romantic drama’ Marie ClaireAdam Basil and Christine Rose are thrown together late one night: Christine is crossing the Ha'penny Bridge in Dublin; Adam is poised, threatening to jump.Adam is desperate – but Christine makes a crazy deal with him. His birthday is looming and she bets him that before then she can show him life is worth living .Against the ticking of the clock, the two of them embark on wild escapades, grand romantic gestures and some unlikely late-night outings. Slowly, Christine thinks Adam is starting to fall back in love with his life. But is that all that's happening?A novel to make you laugh, cry and appreciate life, this is Cecelia Ahern at her thoughtful and surprising best.
How to Fall in Love
Cecelia Ahern
Copyright (#ulink_54016f5e-be0f-578d-a39c-7df41b3593b9)
Published by HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd
1 London Bridge Street
London SE1 9GF
www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk)
First published in Great Britain by HarperCollinsPublishers 2013
This edition published by Harper 2016
Copyright © Cecelia Ahern 2013
Cover design by Heike Schüssler © HarperCollinsPublishers 2016
Cecelia Ahern asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.
Source ISBN: 9780007350513
Ebook Edition © May 2016 ISBN: 9780007483907
Version: 2017-08-14
Praise for Cecelia Ahern (#ulink_6960a9fc-8932-531b-aa37-5f877247924e)
‘Cecelia Ahern’s novels are like a box of emeralds … they are, one and all, dazzling gems’
Adriana Trigiani, author of The Shoemaker’s Wife
‘Beautiful and unexpected … both thought-provoking and life-affirming’
Sunday Express
‘Intricate and emotional … really completely lovely’
Grazia
‘A wry, dark drama’
Daily Mail
‘Life-affirming, warm and wise’
Good Housekeeping
‘Cecelia Ahern is an undisputed master when it comes to writing about relationships … Moving, real and exquisitely crafted.’
Heat
‘Exceptional … both heartbreaking and uplifting’
Daily Express
‘Both moving and thought-provoking’
Irish Independent
‘An exquisitely crafted and poignant tale about finding the beauty that lies within the ordinary. Make space for it in your life’
Heat
‘An unusual and satisfying novel’
Woman
‘Ahern cleverly and thoughtfully turns the tables, providing thought-provoking life lessons.’
Sunday Express
‘An intriguing, heartfelt novel, which makes you think about the value of life’
Glamour
‘Insightful and true’
Irish Independent
‘Ahern demonstrates a sure and subtle understanding of the human condition and the pleasures and pains in relationships’
Barry Forshaw
‘Utterly irresistible … I devoured it in one sitting’
Marian Keyes
‘The legendary Ahern will keep you guessing … a classic’
Company
Dedication (#ulink_d2887a8c-26de-5c76-9692-1fa6c3c8e27f)
For David, who taught me how to fall in love
Contents
Cover (#u357e6bc0-20a2-5f04-9a07-6ae2913ee5f0)
Title Page (#u91f055a1-ea91-503e-a80a-4757c9cf5993)
Copyright (#u650fb6e9-4094-56c5-9c1c-651200565f06)
Praise for Cecelia Ahern (#ua7de6ca3-a004-5753-b572-f9222ab31111)
Dedication (#ud91182f9-f014-5cbe-9687-64de72f42cc1)
1. How to Talk a Man Down (#u45a4d719-524b-52fd-838e-42e4bf9d3ce5)
2. How to Leave Your Husband (Without Hurting Him) (#ue80867d1-9a95-5648-a5f0-371371165ce9)
3. How to Recognise a Miracle and What to Do When You Have (#u465f59de-1fa9-5af3-88b3-307aa7bdbbe3)
4. How to Hold on for Dear Life (#u9e595d55-24a2-57f0-b5f7-abec4529a6b2)
5. How to Take Your Relationship to the Next Level (#u7c063f77-2b62-5fef-addb-4404bfaa362d)
6. How to Quiet Your Mind and Get Some Sleep (#ued1af2a7-6b08-5647-980f-148a3e87a5d0)
7. How to Build Friendships and Develop Trust (#ub154002c-c80e-5cd4-8d2e-f2a905e3e2d5)
8. How to Sincerely Apologise When You Realise You Have Hurt Someone (#u6c582dc6-5df1-536c-9ed8-58542ebb5f34)
9. How to Enjoy Your Life in Thirty Simple Ways (#litres_trial_promo)
10. How to Make an Omelette Without Breaking Eggs (#litres_trial_promo)
11. How to Disappear Completely and Never Be Found (#litres_trial_promo)
12. How to Solve a Problem Like Maria (#litres_trial_promo)
13. How to Recognise and Appreciate the People in Your Life Today (#litres_trial_promo)
14. How to Have Your Cake and Eat It (#litres_trial_promo)
15. How to Reap What You Sow (#litres_trial_promo)
16. How to Organise and Simplify Your Life (#litres_trial_promo)
17. How to Stand Out from the Crowd (#litres_trial_promo)
18. How to Make Absolutely Everything Okay Again (#litres_trial_promo)
19. How to Pick Yourself Up and Dust Yourself Off (#litres_trial_promo)
20. How to Stand Up and Be Counted (#litres_trial_promo)
21. How to Dig a Hole to the Other Side of the World (#litres_trial_promo)
22. How to Solve Will and Inheritance Disputes in Eight Easy Ways (#litres_trial_promo)
23. How to Prepare Yourself for a Goodbye (#litres_trial_promo)
24. How to Wallow in Your Despair in One Easy Way (#litres_trial_promo)
25. How to Ask for Help Without Losing Face (#litres_trial_promo)
26. How to Find the Positive in a Catch-22 (#litres_trial_promo)
27. How to Celebrate Your Achievements (#litres_trial_promo)
Acknowledgements (#litres_trial_promo)
Q & A (#litres_trial_promo)
Keep Reading … (#litres_trial_promo)
About the Author (#litres_trial_promo)
Also by Cecelia Ahern (#litres_trial_promo)
About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)
1 (#ulink_90231878-ceda-5b3a-8cc1-bb47f8dccc08)
How to Talk a Man Down (#ulink_90231878-ceda-5b3a-8cc1-bb47f8dccc08)
They say lightning never strikes twice. Untrue. Well, it’s true that people say it; it’s just untrue as a fact.
NASA-funded scientists discovered that cloud-to-ground lightning frequently strikes the ground in two or more places and that the chances of being struck are about forty-five per cent higher than what people assume. But what people mostly mean to say is that lightning never strikes the same location on more than one occasion, which is also untrue as a fact. Though the odds of being hit by lightning are one in three thousand, between 1942 and 1977 Roy Cleveland Sullivan, a Park Ranger in Virginia, was hit by lightning on seven different occasions. Roy survived all the lightning strikes, but he killed himself when he was seventy-one, shooting himself in the stomach over what was rumoured to be unrequited love. If people dispensed with the lightning metaphor and instead just said what they meant, it would be that the same highly unlikely thing never happens to the same person twice. Untrue. If the reason behind Roy’s death is true, heartbreak carries its own unique brand of sorrow and Roy would have known better than anyone that it was highly likely that this highly unlikely misfortune could occur again. Which brings me to the point of my story: the first of my two highly unlikely events.
It was eleven p.m. on a freezing cold December night in Dublin and I found myself somewhere I had never been before. It is not a metaphor for my psychological state, though it would be apt; what I mean is that I literally had never geographically been to the area before. An ice-cold wind blew through the abandoned Southside housing development, causing an unearthly tune to play through broken windows and flapping scaffolding materials. There were gaping black holes where there should have been windows, unfinished surfaces with menacing potholes and upturned flagstones, pipework-cluttered balconies and exit routes, wires and tubing that began randomly and ended nowhere, the place a stage set for tragedy. The sight alone, nothing to do with the minus-degree temperature, made me shudder. The estate should have been filled with sleeping families, lights out and curtains drawn; instead, the development was lifeless, evacuated by owners who had been left to live in ticking time-bombs with fire-safety concerns as long as the list of lies they were told by builders who failed to deliver on the promise of luxury living at boom-time prices.
I shouldn’t have been there. I was trespassing, but that wasn’t what should have concerned me: it was dangerous. To the conventional ordinary person it was unwelcoming; I should have turned around and gone back the way I came. I knew all these things and yet I ploughed on, debating with my gut. I went inside.
