David Nicholls (Hodder & Stoughton)
Unlike most university shags, Dex and Em’s one-night stand develops into an enduring friendship spanning 20 years.
One Day follows their journey, on one day of each year, from wide-eyed ingénues, through success and failure, love and loss, to something approaching self-realisation.
What a journey it is.
Taking his cue from the narrative structure, Nicholls catapults his readers on a whistle-stop tour of the ’80s and ’90s, exploring the complexities of suppressed passion, burgeoning romance and gut-wrenching disappointment on his way.
What’s more, it’s comically, painfully true.
Have you ever developed a crush on your best mate? Been stuck in a job you despise? Partied too hard and woken up wondering how life passed you by? It’s all here – the human experience laid bare in all its fallible glory.
So real are Nicholls’ leads, so compelling their story, it’s impossible not to be drawn into their world, to care deeply about their fate.
By turns heart-warming and heart rending, this sublime novel is story-telling at its best.
CLAIRE GOODALL
