One Day

✍ Scribed by David Nicholls; David Nicholls

• Publisher: Hachette UK
• Year: 2006
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 251 KB
• Edition: Reprint
• Category: Fiction

✦ Synopsis

'I can imagine you at forty,' she said, a hint of malice in her voice. 'I can picture it right now.'

He smiled without opening his eyes. 'Go on then.'

15th July 1988. Emma and Dexter meet for the first time 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?

Twenty years, two people, ONE DAY. From the author of the massive bestseller STARTER FOR TEN.

Review

'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.' (Jonathan Coe Guardian Books of the Year )

'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' (Marian Keyes )

'The ultimate zeitgeist love story for anyone who ever wanted someone they couldn't have' (Adele Parks 20090219)

'Big, absorbing, smart, fantastically readable . . . brilliant on the details of the last couple of decades of British cultural and political life' (Nick Hornby 20090403)

'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' (Heat 20090403)

'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' (The Times Book Club 20090403)

'You'd be hard pressed to find a sharper, sweeter romantic comedy this year than the story of Dex and Em' (Independent 20090403)

'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' (Dylan Jones 20090403)

'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' (Guardian 20090403)

'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' (The Times Book Club 20090403)

'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' (Daily Record 20090403)

'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' (Polly Williams 20090403)

'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.' (Tony Parsons 20090129)

'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 Times 20090129)

'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.' (Jenny Colgan 20081202)

'I really loved it . . . it's absolutely wonderful . . . just so moving and engaging' (Kate Mosse 20090621)

'With its beautifully rounded, real characters and deeply poignant storytelling, this is one of the year's best novels.' (Heat 20090621)

'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.' (Daily Mail 20090621)

'Page by page, the funniest book of the year' (Uncut 20090621)

'[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.' (Daily Mirror 20090621)

'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.' (News of the World 20090621)

'I couldn't think of anyone who wouldn't love this book' (Simon Mayo Books Panel, BBC Radio Five Live 20090621)

'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.' (Herald 20090621)

'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' (SHE 20090621)

'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' (Psychologies 20090621)

'As a study of what we once were and what we can become, it's masterfully realised' (Esquire 20090621)

'Perfect for the beach or summer in the city' (In Style 20090621)

'An off-kilter romantic comedy with charm to spare' (Harpers Bazaar 20090621)

'A delicious love story' (Sunday Herald 20090621)

'funny and moving' (Scotsman 20090621)

'David STARTER FOR TEN Nicholls is back with this smart comedy, packed with the mistakes, mismatches and meandering conversations that make up real life' (Marie Claire , Book of the Month 20090621)

'A modern fairy tale, slickly put together. A gifted story-teller with lots of technical savvy.' (Scottish Review of Books 20090621)

'An edgy romantic tale' (Woman & Home 20090603)

'I loved this book . . . moved me profoundly' (Amanda Ross 20090527)

'Snort-out-loud stuff . . . it deserves to be a huge hit' (thelondonpaper 20090609)

'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.' (Independent on Sunday Books of the Year 2009 20090609)

'Intoxicating, engrossing and verging on genius' (Daily Record , Scotland 20090609)

'A compulsive read you'll want to devour in one sitting' (Woman 20090609)

'This is a real cancel-all-calls, leave-me-alone book' (The Times Book Club 20090609)

'I can't recommend it more highly' (The Word 20090609)

'A cross between Jonathan Coe and Nick Hornby, this is romantic, sharp and very English' (Scotsman 20090609)

'Laugh out loud funny with razor dialogue' (Nadia Sawalha 20090609)

'One Day should come with a health warning attached: This Book is Seriously Addictive' (Belfast Telegraph 20090609)

'It's Love Actually meets High Fidelity meets This Life - i.e. perfect.' (Sydney Sunday Herald 20090609)

'It's a book that speaks to my generation, and I found it totally gripping. The characters are complex and their relationship uncertain. I don't want to give away the ending, but everyone who has read it agrees how powerful it is.' (Ed Miliband 20090609)

'I know this is The Book That Everyone Has Read, but it's especially a book for my life . . . There is something devastatingly sad about it. The writing reminds you how, when you were young, despite everything you thought you knew, you never fully grasped the transience and precious power of youth itself.' (Jeremy Vine in We Love This Book 20090609)

About the Author

David Nicholls trained as an actor before making the switch to writing. His TV credits include the third series of Cold Feet , Rescue Me , and I Saw You , as well as a much-praised modern version of Much Ado About Nothing and an adaptation of Tess of the D'Urbervilles , both for BBC TV. David has continued to write for film and TV as well as writing novels, and he has twice been nominated for BAFTA awards.

David's bestselling first novel, STARTER FOR TEN, was selected for the Richard and Judy Book Club in 2004, and David has written the screenplays for film versions of both STARTER FOR TEN (released in 2006, starring James McAvoy) and THE UNDERSTUDY (not yet released).

David Nicholls' third novel, ONE DAY, was published in hardback in 2009 to extraordinary critical acclaim, and stayed in the Sunday Times top ten bestseller list for ten weeks on publication. It has since gone on to sell over 2 million copies and has been translated into thirty-seven languages. ONE DAY won the 2010 Galaxy Book of the Year Award. David wrote the screenplay for Lone Scherfig's film adaptation starring Jim Sturgess and Anne Hathaway, which was released in 2010.