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Down Time follows five friends' introspective journeys after the death of a sixth friend and a global pandemic disrupts their everyday lives

Author Andrew Martin tells PEOPLE he wanted to capture the feeling of being "on the verge of 'midlife' in our current era" — a moment in time he's currently experiencing

"These characters represent some of the darkest aspects of my experience, but they're also funny, self-aware and in their own ways, brave," he says

Andrew Martin 's upcoming novel unpacks age-old, universal desires: "to love and be loved, to know and be known, to stay sane, if only just."

In Down Time , a group of five friends are thrust towards introspection when a sixth friend dies suddenly and a global pandemic disrupts their lives. In the novel, which the p

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