From the creator of the global hit TV show How I Met Your Mother comes a saga of modern life and love. Set in NYC, and with a cast of characters with noses pressed firmly up against their iPhone as they date, mate, and search for happiness, this sprawling romantic comedy is for the people who love the film Love Actually and are looking for a lighter escape from our day-to-day word.

THE MUTUAL FRIEND
by Carter Bays
Dutton, Summer/Fall 2022

THE MUTUAL FRIEND is an observational romantic comedy in the vein of Jane Austen, about how technology has changed the way we relate to the world and each other, and how we relate to that technology. It takes place over the summer of 2015, in the Morningside Heights neighborhood of Manhattan. Our hero, Alice Quick, is a 26-year-old former classical pianist child prodigy, now floating through life as a nanny. Alice has a dream: She wants to be a doctor. Once upon a time, in an impassioned Facebook post, Alice announced to all her friends that she’s finally gonna get her act together, take the MCAT, apply to medical school, and make something of her life. That post got hundreds of likes. But now it’s been three years and she still hasn’t done any of it. This summer, that’s all going to change. One day in June, when Alice moves in with her wild new roommate Roxy, and then goes on an unplanned blind date with a somewhat-mysterious 40-year-old bachelor named Bob, the wheels are set in motion for Alice to sign up for the MCAT, and spend the next 81 days studying like crazy, so she can pass the test and finally get into Medical School. But it’s not going to be easy. To complete her journey, Alice must do battle with a dragon, and the name of this dragon is distraction…
THE MUTUAL FRIEND is an immersive and richly-detailed exploration of life in two different worlds – the world outside our phones, and the world inside our phones – and how hard it has become to say for sure which one is real.

Carter Bays is the creator of the show How I Met Your Mother, which ran on CBS for nine years. The show received thirty Emmy nominations and won ten, including one for best song, which was written by Bays. The show now streams on Hulu and has a cult following. Carter lives in LA with his wife and three children.