56 pages • 1 hour read
Sophie CousensThis Time Next Year
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2020A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 37-42 Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 37 Summary: “September 13, 2020”
Minnie visits her parents, who are knocking down their garden shed to make room for a new vegetable plot. While making tea, Minnie finds a family scrapbook with a record of all of Minnie’s professional accomplishments, including every menu she ever cooked as a chef and advertisements for No Hard Fillings. This evidence of her mother’s love and support overwhelms Minnie.
Minnie’s parents both praise the fruitcake she brought for them. Connie reflects that their family is a gift in her life, and Minnie is stunned to see her parents openly affectionate with one another. Minnie shares a new business plan with her parents and is shocked to find that they support her without criticism. Her father suggests selling some of his clocks to fund her new business, saying, “Maybe I spent too much time on them, didn’t spend enough time on what’s important” (292).
Chapter 38 Summary: “October 20, 2020”
Minnie prepares for her first investor’s meeting to pitch her new business. Greg connected Minnie with Lucy, Quinn’s ex-girlfriend, who now works in corporate catering. Minnie reflects that “in the past, she would have assumed someone like Lucy would never even give her a meeting […] It would probably come to nothing, but she ha[s] to try” (294). The meeting goes well, and later, Lucy calls to report that Lexon, a big bank, wants to partner with her in her new pie-making venture. Connie, who is herself undergoing a career change to become a midwife, is eager for news of the presentation.
Minnie notices an apology note from Quinn on her doormat, expressing hope that they can meet at the ponds so he can make amends and explain himself. Minnie’s cat, Lucky, has peed on most of the note, so Minnie can’t tell when it was sent or when Quinn wanted to meet. Minnie is full of doubts, unsure whether returning to her feelings for Quinn fits with her new life.
Chapter 39 Summary: “October 25, 2020”
Minnie returns to the ponds that weekend, taking in the changed autumnal landscape. Quinn appears, and Minnie is struck once more by his good looks. Quinn explains that he sent the letter three weeks ago but has been coming weekly in case Minnie changed her mind. He tells her that he has grown up associating love with mental illness but that after therapy, he realizes he owes Minnie an apology. Though Minnie responds cynically, he tells her, “I want to give it a chance. I think I love you, if it doesn’t sound too nuts” (303).
Minnie finds herself anxious rather than charmed. She tells him about her new business and her improved relationship with her parents, explaining, “I’m happy to be me and I’ve never felt like that before” (304). Minnie suggests that they be friends instead, though she feels torn after he kisses her on the cheek before leaving.
Chapter 40 Summary: “December 30, 2020”
The narrative moves forward to Leila’s wedding. The event is unexpectedly taking place in Minnie’s new catering space, as the intended wedding venue flooded just days before. Leila gives a toast to Minnie, saying, “These wonderful people here today, this amazing new business, this would never have happened to a Quinn Cooper. Some things are all Minnie” (308).
After the reception, Leila and Ian prepare to leave for their Parisian honeymoon. Leila says she wants Minnie to experience similar joy and brings up Quinn. Minnie reminds Leila that she was the one who advised Minnie to prioritize herself. Leila points out that if Minnie still has strong feelings, they are worth pursuing.
Chapter 41 Summary: “New Year’s Eve 2020”
At her apartment, Minnie prepares to watch movies alone to avoid her usual bad luck on the eve of her birthday. Minnie has mostly chosen films about strong women to remind herself that “she [doesn’t] need a man to make her life complete” (314), though she is still thinking about Quinn. She calls him and is surprised when he answers. He says his phone battery is dying but suggests that she meet him at a boat party on the Thames River. He is disappointed to hear that she still does not want to leave her house and believes she is letting her paranoia around her birthday control her life. Minnie decides to meet him.
The closest Underground station is closed, so Minnie hails a passing cab. A man beats her to it, but she convinces the man to share the cab with her by telling him that she is racing to profess her love to someone. The cab’s tire soon blows out, and Minnie runs for a bus, which is pausing to change drivers. Minnie convinces the bus driver to extend his shift, but she arrives at the pier too late and sees Quinn’s boat at a distance, pulling away from her.
Chapter 42 Summary: “New Year’s Eve 2020”
Minnie, dejected, walks home and is shocked to find Quinn in her apartment. Minnie explains that she went to the pier to find him, but Quinn says he decided to stay with her. He tells her, “I think it’s time I showed you exactly how I feel” (325), and he passionately kisses her.
Minnie suggests that they go to a nearby park, Primrose Hill, and have a picnic, which she has wanted to do for years. The two kiss at midnight as fireworks go off around them. Tara calls to confirm that Minnie and Quinn found each other and wishes Minnie a happy birthday.
Minnie, following Leila’s tradition, asks what Quinn wants to be doing the following New Year’s Eve. Quinn tells her that he is happy to recreate this picnic, and Minnie kisses him. He asks her the same question, and she says, “I don’t mind where I am, as long as it’s you I’m kissing at lemming o’clock” (330). Her words spur Quinn’s memory, and he recognizes her as the girl he kissed long ago. Minnie kisses him again, eager to embrace their new present as a couple.
Chapters 37-42 Analysis
The novel’s final act sees Minnie embrace newly repaired relationships, underscoring The Power of Family and Community Bonds. Minnie’s new confidence comes from her established network of family and friends. Connie is newly able to support her daughter, thanks to her friendship with Tara. Minnie’s father turns his obsession with clocks to the benefit of his family’s present goals, financing Minnie’s new business and Connie’s new career. Both Cooper women are helping others with their passions: Minnie with her cooking and Connie through coaching women in labor as she once did for Tara decades before. Even Greg is newly willing to support Minnie’s dreams, coaching her through her business meeting. These renewed bonds underline the related theme of Transformation and Change: Lucy barely recognizes Minnie, who privately barely recognizes this new, empowered version of herself too.
Once Minnie lets go of the narrative of herself as a failure, more opportunities arise in both her friendships and her romantic life. Quinn’s letter finds her through her cat, appropriately named Lucky. Leila’s wedding is a key moment in Minnie’s character arc: Minnie becomes the one to solve a crisis rather than struggle with it, saving the day with her new business space. With Leila’s help, this moment allows Minnie to shed “Quinn Cooper,” the alternate timeline and more successful version of herself. Leila also pushes Minnie to pursue Quinn, highlighting how self-confidence can also include the pursuit of passion. Minnie gives in to Leila’s suggestion on New Year’s Eve, finally eager to prove to Quinn, and herself, that she now believes in her agency rather than the power of her history.
The couple’s mutual romantic gestures coupled with Quinn’s realization that he and Minnie kissed as 13-year-olds solidifies the narrative’s happy ending. While Minnie takes an adversity-ridden journey through London to reach Quinn’s boat, alluding to her history of bad luck, Quinn makes an equivalent gesture by abandoning his party to return to Minnie’s apartment. Their gestures signal a newfound commitment to meeting on the other’s terms, and their commitment to a joint celebration indicates the end of doubts about their future. As Minnie’s references to romance film classics like Sleepless in Seattle suggest, her and Quinn’s gestures firmly situate their relationship in a lineage of rom-coms and happy endings. Quinn realizes that he and Minnie met as teenagers, a revelation that suggests that the couple was fated to reconnect. By finally reuniting the flashbacks with the narrative present and grounding the plot in classic romance tropes, Cousens establishes that Minnie’s luck has shifted and that she and Quinn are secure in their happy ending.
