“In Us: Americans Talk About Love, author John Bowe presents 44 firsthand stories—hideous, hilarious and ultimately hopeful—from the likes of teenagers, sex workers, Amtrak conductors, immigrants and octogenarians. Every day is Valentine’s Day in this profound, touching work of social anthropology.” —Los Angeles Times Magazine
“This gaggle of voices from all walks of life will have you giggling, crying, and muttering to yourself in alarmingly rapid succession...As one Kansas City autoworker who’s been married to his junior-high-school sweetheart for 65 years puts it, ‘True love exists. If you make it. It’s a true thing if you make it true.’ Amen.” —Elle magazine
“Funny, brutally honest, quirky, devastatingly painful, and hopeful all at the same time. Every story is a small movie I wish someone would make.” —Judd Apatow, writer, director and producer of The 40 Year Old Virgin, Knocked Up, and Funny People
“It’s interesting reading this volley of love stories. One finds oneself comparing one’s own great love to each of these couples, thinking, ‘Oh, we’re a much better couple than them,’ or, ‘Gee, they seem to know a few things I don’t.’” —Ira Glass, host and producer of This American Life
“I love love, in all its permutations—gritty, glorious, courageous, clumsy, brutal and beautiful. US: Americans Talk About Love is the wisest, frankest, most entertaining book on the subject. The extraordinary stories in these pages illuminate the absurd wonder of the ever-hopeful human heart.” —Isabel Gillies, author of Happens Every Day: An All Too True Story
“This amazing book made me think of Walt Whitman, who asked ‘Who speaks of miracles? I know of nothing but miracles.’ Like the best of Studs Terkel, the detail and power of the voices in these pages remind us that a kind of miracle is unfolding every day, all around us.” —Nick Flynn, author of Another Bullshit Night in Suck City
