A Big Storm Knocked it Over
By (Author) Laurie Colwin
Orion Publishing Co
Weidenfeld & Nicolson
17th February 2026
6th November 2025
United Kingdom
General
Fiction
Paperback
256
Width 129mm, Height 198mm
At once a hilarious social commentary and an insightful, sophisticated modern romance, A Big Storm Knocked It Over stands as a living tribute to one of contemporary fiction's most original and beloved voices.
In her late thirties, book designer Jane Louise Parker has just married a man whose native decency leaves her almost breathless at her good fortune. After the wedding, she returns to work at a small publishing house whose finances are in disarray. But Jane Louise still has difficulty thinking of herself as a grown-up. Alongside her best friend, Edie, Jane Louise patiently waits to become pregnant, wondering if a baby will provide a sense of rootedness that still seems to elude her. And when that longed-for child arrives, it transforms the Parkers' lives in a way that is as unexpected as it is rapturous.A novel about trying to find a place in the world from the ultimate chronicler of the human heart, A Big Storm Knocked it Over offers a comic love story for overthinkers.A W&N EssentialAn infallible recipe for happiness: read as much Laurie Colwin as you can -- Emma Straub
Laurie Colwin is the author of five novels - HAPPY ALL THE TIME, FAMILY HAPPINESS, GOODBYE WITHOUT LEAVING, A BIG STORM KNOCKED IT OVER and SHINE ON, BRIGHT AND DANGEROUS OBJECT - three collections of short stories - PASSION AND AFFECT, THE LONE PILGRIM and ANOTHER MARVELLOUS THING - and two collections of essays, HOME COOKING and MORE HOME COOKING. Laurie Colwin died in 1992.