BOOK
One Day by David Nicholls
Hodder & Stoughton, £12.99
4/5
IN A NUTSHELL
Catching up with Emma and Dexter on the same day each year for 20 years as their lives separate and collide.
REVIEW
From a blindingly simple concept comes a truly magnificent book.
Emma and Dexter meet for the first time on the night of their graduation on July 15, 1988. "I can imagine you at 40," she says, even though it seems their paths are destined never to cross again.
The novel returns to them every July 15 for the next 20 years, as the under-achieving and listless Emma struggles to find an outlet for her intelligence and Dexter finds fame, success and their perils as a TV presenter.
They do meet occasionally but they do not figure greatly in each other's lives. There is a sense of inevitability about what will follow as they discover what they truly want and who they want to share it with.
In the hands of author David Nicholls, author of Starter For Ten, this is an amusing and touching nostalgia fest as well as a razor sharp depiction of the "friend zone".
From such light beginnings, then, it comes as a shock that the book gets under the skin, weaves its magic and becomes profoundly moving.
– First published in The Wharf, July 16
