Anne Tyler at her best! Set over 3 days and a family wedding. Anne Tyler explores family life with precision and care. Gail and Max are divorced parents of Debbie who is just about to marry. Over the 3 days past secrets are revealed as well as family relationships as Gail takes stock of her life and the decisions that have brought her to this stage in her life. Her relationship with both her daughter and former husband are revealed in small domestic scenes.

Tyler's beautiful writing sucks you in in 176 pages.

Another triumph for Anne Tyler who always succeeds in making the ordinary and everyday into something special. In Three Days in June we meet Gail who has just lost her job and who has her daughters wedding the following day. Throw in an ex husband and a secret that may disrupt her daughters wedding and the scene is set for another wonderful tale by this author. I sped through the pages and was only sorry when I had finished the book. A must for all Anne Tyler fans. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC of this novel in return for a honest review.

Gail's daughter is getting married and her ex has come to stay for a few days bringing a small cat.
The story doesn't flow easily and when it goes to the past you don't realise it's the past till half way through the paragraph and the ending is so abrupt and not for me so gave it 2-3 *
Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC and I give my honest review.

Anne Tyler squeezes so much into this novella. Spanning three days in Gail’s life, we reflect with her on the minutiae of herself, her family, her career. Quietly reflective and contemplative, I enjoyed spending time with Gail and her ex husband Max, as they find themselves brought together to celebrate their daughter's wedding. I love that the characters are so real, quirky and flawed; that the everyday happenings are just as you’d expect; all the tensions of families being joined through marriage. There’s nothing contrived here, it’s all just everyday life beautifully observed. Fans of Anne Tyler will not be disappointed.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher Random House UK for a copy in exchange for a review.

Anne Tyler’s “Three Days in June” is a charming exploration of family dynamics and self-discovery. The characters truly shine, feeling remarkably realistic and human. Gail, the quirky protagonist, is a delight to follow, and while her ex-husband receives the most development among the supporting cast, every character feels believable. Though the setting isn’t strongly emphasized, this doesn’t detract from the story’s impact. Tyler’s accessible writing style ensures a smooth, enjoyable reading experience.

The simple plot—Gail’s daughter’s wedding, her ex-husband’s temporary stay, and the resulting disruption to her routine—serves as a catalyst for Gail’s self-reflection. The relationships are portrayed with nuance and subtlety. Through carefully crafted interactions and flashbacks, Tyler masterfully shows rather than tells, allowing readers to glean insights into Gail’s connections with her daughter, ex-husband, mother, and even her future in-laws. This approach effectively reveals Gail’s character, quirks, and limitations, creating a rich and complex portrait. “Three Days in June” beautifully blends contemporary and literary elements, offering a touching exploration of family, self-knowledge, forgiveness, acceptance, letting go, and the enduring power of human connection.

This book is an absolute joy to read. I felt real empathy with Gail, not only being a similar age but having been Mother of the Bride twice. The descriptions of the wedding and emotions felt are spot on. I highly recommend this book.

I love Anne Tyler so much and this snack-sized book was such a treat - I ripped through it in a single sitting. This story has all her signature wit and charm, but also really tugs on your heartstrings too. I gently wept all the way through the second half (in a good way). Lovely, gentle, uplifting, very funny about family and wedding dynamics and the dangers of being too hard on yourself. Would be a good recommendation for fans of The Wedding People, I think.

Gail is an assistant head teacher and divorced from Max. Shehas a daughter, Gail, who is about to get married. The story is set around the weekend of Gail's wedding.
Gail is an introvert. Not very social, not always able to read the room to know when she should be showing support or what she should say.
The story begins when her head teacher tells her that she will be having a heart operation and will be leaving the school. Apparently the new head teacher has a favourite assistant teacher that she will bring with her. When asked why, the Head says that Gail is lacking people skills. So Gailmis feeling vulnerable.
As the weekend carries on, other events make Gail feel unwanted or irrelevant. It is 3 days of reflection about how her life will go forward. Her job, her life without Gail, even whether to keep the cat that Max, her ex, has brought for the wedding weekend.
A slow gentle tale showing how we perceive ourself may be harsher than how others do.

Three days in June is a beautifully written story about one weekend in Gail's life. It just so happens that over the course of 3 days Gail leaves her job, attends her only daughter's wedding and has to unexpectedly share her home with her ex-husband and a cat. Tyler has the magical ability to capture the awkwardness, the intense feelings and emotions of everyday life, all while allowing the reader to learn so much more about the characters and how they have become the way they are and emphasise the importance of relationships and only having one life to make the most of. A very quick read that is jam packed with humour and emotion. It's the first I have read by this author, but I look forward to reading more.
With thanks to the author and Netgalley for my Arc version of this book.

Although the writing style appears simple, every word forms part of a picture which brings the characters to life.
Gail is a 61 year old teacher/administrator who walks away from her role after being advised she ‘had no people skills’. The next day is her daughter’s wedding day and her ex husband arrives and asks to stay for the wedding.
Each trivial fact allows the reader to form opinions of the characters and reasons for some of their behaviours.
Anne Tyler writes about people and allows the reader to form their own impressions.
A wonderful book.

I’ve always meant to read an Anne Tyler book, but before now the occasion never arose, I’m now none too pleased that it’s taken me this long to have this pleasure! Tyler writes with a beautifully poetic style that truly makes you feel everything in tandem with the characters on the page. At its heart, this is a simple tale but it is told so poetically that one can’t help but be enthralled.

This was a nice short read! I didn’t love it but I did like it. I enjoyed that it only spanned 3 days and that it captured a small part of their lives.

I didn’t like the choices that all the characters mad but I guess the book showed how messy life can be. I liked that Gail and Max were completely and unapologetically themselves. Although I wasn’t a fan of Debbie and how she treated Gail and Max or the decision she ultimately made.

The ending was really sweet though and I’m glad it ended that way. It was just a little sad that it took the characters so long to come together.

Overall I would recommend it if people are looking for a quick short read.

An average read I enjoyed the story to some extent but it was a very short novello type book and I really like something I can get my teeth into that grips me from the beginning and thus one didn't do it for me. If you fancy a couple of hours reading you this would be nice

What a simple but beautiful story!-I read it in one sitting. Anne Tyler has the gift of writing great characters and storylines and this one has it all. Told over the 3 days of Gail's daughter's wedding so much is packed in to this delightful novella. Highly recommended. Thank you to the publisher, netgalley and author for an advance reading copy.

Gail Baines finds it hard to understand the world around her, she struggles with everyday interactions and finds it easier to quietly leave the room early than be the life and soul of the party. She is worried about her only daughter, Debbie's, wedding and finds out that they want to let her go at work. Just to cap it all her ex-husband, Max, turns up out of the blue expecting bed and board. Max's arrival brings back many memories making Gail wistful for the past. Gentle look at relationships and what makes them tick.

I

I love Anne Tyler.

For all I love my horror and my difficult messy women and my gothic fiction, I also just love a quiet book about people just living their lives.

I needed a palette cleanser after my last read and this lovely little novella was perfect.

Three days in June is such a perfect title. A little snapshot of a family’s life on the days around a wedding.

In ways I wish it was longer but I also think it was the perfect length.

A quiet novel about the everyday. I loved it.

This is simply a beautifully written book. The characterisation and story telling is just exemplary and I was completely drawn into the story. I must now read more by Anne Tyler! Thank you - I highly recommend.

If you are familiar with Ann Tyler’s writing you will know to expect a slow burn, focusing in on character, rather than plot. This is another example of Tyler zooming in on a family that is both typical and idiosyncratic as they navigate the 3 days around a family wedding.

Tyler presents us with a prickly protagonist, Gail, someone who is quite emotionally closed and gradually reveals her past, which explains a great deal about her present. You simultaneously want to shake and hug Gail for her inability to show herself emotionally vulnerable and wonder how Max could ever have thought that she ‘hung the moon’.

It is a wonderful piece of writing, deceptively simple yet filled with repressed emotion. A marvellous demonstration of how it is sometimes easier to forgive others than forgive yourself.

With thanks to NetGalley, Ann Tyler and Random House UK, Vintage, Chatto & Windus for an arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.

As always Anne Tyler's writing is pure joy to read. A short book which was so absorbing, realistic, pulled no punches and totally believable. This could be a story about one of your friends. Gail keeps to herself, gets on with her life but these three days in June are eventful and has Gail looking back over her past and considering her future.
Can't praise it enough!
Many thanks to Netgalley/Anne Tyler/Random House UK for a digital copy of this title. All opinions expressed are my own.

'Three Days in June' is vintage Anne Tyler - a quiet, warm and wise novel about love and family.

This slender novel is narrated by Gail Baines, a divorced and socially awkward assistant school principal in her early 60s; as the title suggests, it unfolds over three days - the day before her daughter's wedding, the wedding itself and the day after. At the start of the novel, Gail learns that she is likely to be out of a job; she then unexpectedly ends up putting her ex-husband Max (and the cat he is fostering) up for the weekend of the wedding. She feels conflicted when their daughter Debbie has a crisis of confidence before her wedding, which causes her to look back on her own marriage to Max and the decisions she made.

Gail makes for an enjoyable narrator - insightful and sometimes acerbic in a way that sometimes reminded me of Elizabeth Strout's Olive Kitteridge (like Gail, a maths teacher). She perhaps has a little more self-awareness, though; I enjoyed her reflection that 'Someday I'd like to be given credit for all the times I have not said something that I could have said.' Tyler writes well about the gentle intimacy that can still be found between people who were once married to each other ('those married-couple conversations that continue intermittently for weeks, sometimes, branching out and doubling back and looping into earlier strands like a piece of crochet work'), the pleasure of 'rehashing' social events - and the loneliness of not having someone to do this with.

The novel is also good about the fundamental unknowability of others - as Gail observes of her daughter's new mother-in-law, 'Sometimes when I find out what's on other people's minds I honestly wonder if we all live on totally separate planets'. This is perhaps most true of Gail and Max - at one point Gail incredulously remarks, 'Sixty-five years old and yet he still believed that human beings were capable of change'. But, as in many Tyler novels, it is Gail herself who will ultimately make tentative steps towards changing her life. I loved her reflection that 'I'm too young for this [...] Not too old, as you might expect, but too young, too inept, too uninformed. How come there weren't any grownups around? Why did everyone just assume I knew what I was doing?'

This is a relatively quick but deeply pleasurable read. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for sending me an ARC to review.