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Published for the first time in flipback – the new, portable, stylish format that’s taken Europe by storm.
YOU CAN LIVE YOUR WHOLE LIFE NOT REALISING THAT WHAT YOU’RE LOOKING FOR IS RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOU.
15TH JULY 1988. Emma and Dexter meet on the night of their graduation. Tomorrow they must go their separate ways.
So where will they be on this one day next year? And the year after that?
And every year that follows?
YOU CAN LIVE YOUR WHOLE LIFE NOT REALISING THAT WHAT YOU’RE LOOKING FOR IS RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOU.
15TH JULY 1988. Emma and Dexter meet on the night of their graduation. Tomorrow they must go their separate ways.
So where will they be on this one day next year? And the year after that?
And every year that follows?
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Reviews
It's rare to find a novel which ranges over the recent past with such authority, and even rarer to find one in which the two leading characters are drawn with such solidity, such painful fidelity, to real life that you really do put the book down with the hallucinatory feeling that they've become as well known to you as your closest friends. Hard to imagine anyone encountering characters as well drawn as this and not recognizing the extraordinary talent of the writer who has created them.
I finished it last night and I'm still quite wobbly and affected by it. It was BRILLIANT. . . the jealously nearly made me puke. I wish I'd written this book
The ultimate zeitgeist love story for anyone who ever wanted someone they couldn't have
Big, absorbing, smart, fantastically readable . . . brilliant on the details of the last couple of decades of British cultural and political life
The novel of the year - a brilliantly funny and moving will-they, won't-they romance tracing a relationship on the same day each day for two decades
It is a cleverly and astutely constructed book - but that is worthy of a mere footnote compared with its emotional impact. I am not ashamed to say that upon finishing it I pressed it to my chest as a big fat tear splashed onto its upturned spine
You'd be hard pressed to find a sharper, sweeter romantic comedy this year than the story of Dex and Em
Nicholls' book is the sort of thing you can't put down, and I read it over a weekend, creeping upstairs to gulp down another chapter when I should have been downstairs preparing dinner of helping with homework
I felt that I had been emotionally taken apart by the very best. This perfectly executed novel is a reminder that reading can be the finest entertainment there is
If you measure your love for a book by the number of times you buy it for people, then my favourite is ONE DAY by David Nicholls. I read it about a year ago and must have bought it for at least 20 people since
We could fill a page with descriptive proclamations of its brilliance, but we'll stick with intoxicating, engrossing and verging on genius. If this has never graced your bedside table, then go directly to the nearest bookshop, purchase one copy and start 2010 with a read that has taken the literary world by storm
It made me laugh and sob, and the characters just walk off the page into your head, where they remain. How I wish I'd written it, as does every novelist I know
A totally brilliant book about the heartbreaking gap between the way we were and the way we are...the best weird love story since THE TIME TRAVELER'S WIFE. Every reader will fall in love with it. And every writer will wish they had written it.
A wonderful, wonderful book: wise, funny, perceptive, compassionate and often unbearably sad . . . the best British social novel since Jonathan Coe's WHAT A CARVE UP! . . . Nicholls's witty prose has a transparency that brings Nick Hornby to mind: it melts as you read it so that you don't notice all the hard work that it's doing
The funniest, loveliest book I've read in ages. Most of all it is horribly, cringingly, absolutely 100% honest and true to life: I lived every page.
I really loved it . . . it's absolutely wonderful . . . just so moving and engaging
With its beautifully rounded, real characters and deeply poignant storytelling, this is one of the year's best novels.
With a nod to WHEN HARRY MET SALLY, this funny, emotionally engaging third novel from David Nicholls traces the unlikely relationship between Emma Morley and Dexter Mayhew . . . Told with toe-curlingly accurate insight and touching observation . . . If you left college sometime in the Eighties with no clear idea of what was going to happen next, or who your lifelong friends might turn out to be, this one's a definite for your holiday suitcase. If you didn't, it still is . . . The feelgood film must surely be just around the corner. I can't wait.
Page by page, the funniest book of the year
[Nicholls] has both a very deft prose style and a great understanding of human emotion. His characterisation is utterly convincing . . . ONE DAY is destined to be a modern classic.
A moving and feel-good read. Nicholls is an expert at capturing that essence of young adulthood, first love, heartbreak, and the tangled, complicated course of romance . . . Deserves to be the must-read hit of the summer.
I couldn't think of anyone who wouldn't love this book
Nicholls captures superbly the ennui of post graduation . . . The writing is almost faultless, there's a great feeling for the period and it's eminently readable.
David Nicholls' third novel captivates love in a way that's real and unassuming . . . Relaying the essence of friendship and unrequited love with fall-off-your-seat humour, this is an unputdownable romance for the 21st century
You're gripped from the opening pages . . . Nicholls, author of STARTER FOR TEN, writes faultless, engaging dialogue and keeps up a cracking pace. You will find this hard to put down
As a study of what we once were and what we can become, it's masterfully realised
Perfect for the beach or summer in the city
An off-kilter romantic comedy with charm to spare
A delicious love story
funny and moving
David STARTER FOR TEN Nicholls is back with this smart comedy, packed with the mistakes, mismatches and meandering conversations that make up real life
A modern fairy tale, slickly put together. A gifted story-teller with lots of technical savvy.
An edgy romantic tale
I loved this book . . . moved me profoundly
Snort-out-loud stuff . . . it deserves to be a huge hit
A romantic comedy that the gents needn't be ashamed to read. Chronicling a friendship spanning two decades, Nicholls perfects the will-they-won't-they trick, starting with his leads at university in the 1980s and poking gentle fun at the decades following. A genuine tear-jerker as well as laugh-out-loud funny.
Intoxicating, engrossing and verging on genius
A compulsive read you'll want to devour in one sitting
This is a real cancel-all-calls, leave-me-alone book
I can't recommend it more highly
A cross between Jonathan Coe and Nick Hornby, this is romantic, sharp and very English
Laugh out loud funny with razor dialogue
One Day should come with a health warning attached: This Book is Seriously Addictive
I found it totally gripping. The characters are complex, the locations familiar. I don't want to give away the ending but everyone who reads it agrees how powerful it is.