The Three of Us

Long-standing tensions between a husband, his wife, and her best friend finally come to a breaking point in this sharp domestic comedy of manners, told brilliantly over the course of one day.

What if your two favorite people hated each other with a passion?

The wife has it all. A big house in a nice neighborhood, a ride-or-die snarky best friend, Temi, with whom to laugh about facile men, and a devoted husband who loves her above all else — even his distate for Temi.

On a seemingly normal day, Temi comes over to spend a lazy afternoon with the wife: drinking win, eating snacks, and laughing caustically about the husband's shortcomings. But when the husband comes home and a series of confessions are made, the wife's two confidantes are suddenly forced to jockey for their positions, throwing everyone's integrity into question — and their long-drawn-out territorial dance, carefully constructed over years, into utter chaos.

Told in three taut, mesmerizing parts — the wife, the husband, the best friend--over the course of one day, The Three of Us is a subversely comical, wildly astute, and painfully compulsive triptych of domestic life that explores cultural truths, what it means to defy them, and the fine line between compromise and betrayal when it comes to ourselves and the people we're meant to love.

"A biting comedy of manners with a delightfully simple, but incredibly fertile, premise....Over three acts, as the thin walls of tact and civility begin to erode, all manner of scabrously hilarious confessions and accusations burst through." — Lit Hub

"[An] intoxicating debut...It lands as a discerning debut from an author who knows a thing or two (or three) about the ever-shifting dynamics of intimacy." — Publishers Weekly

"[A] striking, often wickedly funny debut....An original and potent comedy of manners with an ingenious final twist." — Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review)

Ore Agbaje-Williams is a British Nigerian writer and book editor from London. The Three of Us is her first novel.