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One Day
 
 

One Day [Kindle Edition]

David Nicholls
3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1,364 customer reviews)

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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 2009 20090621)

'Incredibly moving' (Marian Keyes, writing in the Irish Independent 20090621)

'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 TRAVELLER'S WIFE. Every reader will fall in love with it. And every writer will wish they had written it.' (Tony Parsons 20090621)

'Big, absorbing, smart, fantastically readable . . . brilliant on the details of the last couple of decades of British cultural and political life . . . the perfect beach read for people who are normally repelled by the very idea of beach reads' (Nick Hornby 20090621)

'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 20090621)

'The ultimate zeitgeist love story for anyone who ever wanted someone they couldn't have' (Adele Parks 20090621)

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

'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 20090621)

'You'd be hard pressed to find a sharper, sweeter romantic comedy this year than the story of Dex and Em' (Independent 20090621)

'We may have found 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 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)

'Nicholls has a gimlet eye for period detail . . . A beguiling read' (Observer 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)

'Nicholls has written a warm, witty, smart and sad novel, and maybe one of the best books of the year' (Sunday Tribune 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 20090603)

'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 20090527)

'As a study of what we once were and what we can become, it's masterfully realised' (Esquire 20090609)

'Perfect for the beach or summer in the city' (In Style 20090609)

'An off-kilter romantic comedy with charm to spare' (Harpers Bazaar 20090609)

'A delicious love story' (Sunday Herald 20090609)

'funny and moving' (Scotsman 20090609)

'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 20090609)

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

'An edgy romantic tale' (Woman & Home )

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

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

'A wonderful evocation of a modern love affair' (Glamour )

'Lightly done, but saved from schmaltz by rueful wit and lashings of cringe-inducing nostalgia' (Guardian Review )

'Clever, funny and poignant' (Daily Express )

'A total treat . . . by turns bittersweet, funny, touching and sad, but always Nicholls's wonderfully observant and wry touch shines through. A way-we-live-now parable about relationships, disappointments, friendship and expectations; a novel utterly comfortable in its own skin' (Kate Mosse, writing in The Times )

'Fabulous . . . I couldn't put it down . . . It's brilliant' (Fay Ripley )

Product Description

'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.


Product details

  • Format: Kindle Edition
  • File Size: 874 KB
  • Print Length: 449 pages
  • Page Numbers Source ISBN: 0340896965
  • Publisher: Hodder (23 July 2009)
  • Sold by: Amazon Media EU S.à r.l.
  • Language English
  • ASIN: B002V091IO
  • Text-to-Speech: Enabled
  • Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1,364 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #216 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
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David Nicholls
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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
828 of 905 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
From being a celebrity in the 90's to having a boss with a large beard, nothing is shied away from in this big pot of life. This book follows every 15th July from 1988 (end of their studentship) to near present day in the lives of two characters; Emma and Dexter, and their relationship with each other and others. Don't be put off by the length (430 odd pages) of this book - it is so ridiculously easy to read it makes the act of putting on a DVD seem like overexertion. That's not to say that the writing isn't thickly layered - it's stuffed with literary calories. Emma and Dexter jump out of the book and start living with you, eat your food and argue over the top of your head about the worthlessness of Scrabble. So much of the sharp-razor sharp dialogue sticks a grin on your face, people are unlikely to sit next to you on the train (read in extra comfort).

So there's Emma: warm, funny and cataclysmically directionless. Dexter: confident, arrogant, and transparent. The book then bends these attributes into the three dimensional. Their relationship treads its own path - there's no inevitability in what the next year will bring - their interactions with others the same. Every supporting character, whether they're on one page or a hundred is given their own space to be believable and interesting, and most likely make quite a bit of a mess of things.

The book finished - I'm missing them both. Time for them to come and bother you.
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189 of 208 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I've never been moved to write a review of any book before but this was simply wonderful. David Nicholls has managed to conjure characters so full of depth that in finishing the book I felt almost bereft at their parting. Unlike a paint-by-numbers romcom brimming with contrivances to keep the characters apart, the tale moves with grace and humour through subtle and unexpected turns. The characters aren't always "made for each other", they're not always perfectly perky with adorable quirks; occasionally, like us all, they can be unpleasant, foolish, embarrassing and cowardly.

It is perhaps because of, rather than in spite of, the characters' genuine flaws that this books pulls so strongly at your heart, ringing so true as we explore the effects of our action and inaction in life. With effortlessly beautiful dialogue, and the ability to pick out the tiny subtleties of life, the story will carry you through on a wave of emotion, nostalgia, regret and hope so strong as to feel like a personal memory.

The "same day each year" idea sounds like high concept but its effect in the book is almost transparent to the reader. In fact, closer inspection shows that it actually works wonderfully to drive the story through a clever mix of drama and the everyday - just like life. On the years when the day itself is unremarkable the discovery of what has happened in between provides the reader with rich rewards whilst, all the while, Nicholls draws warmth and humour from the minutiae of life.

As the book draws to a conclusion, the story has an elegant and wondrous subtlety that prompts the involuntarily butterflies-in-stomach feelings of hope, excitement, fear and optimism that one only gets from falling in love.

I read this on a night flight and was thankful that the overhead light illuminated only the pages in front of me for I know that my eyes would have betrayed my feelings as the story closed. A profound tale woven from ordinary truths about love, life and feelings that will leave you genuinely moved and desperate to lend this to someone else.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Kinda disappointing 10 Mar 2011
By Wren
Format:Paperback
I must say after all the glowing reviews, I had high hopes for this book, but somehow for me it just fell short. I love the idea of visiting the characters on the same day throughout their relationship and see what they were doing at that point in time.
I think the beginning and middle were okay, but the ending just failed to deliver. I wasn't overly crazy about the personalities of the 2 characters. Emma was by far the most interesting of the two and I did enjoy her smart and sarcastic quips. The conversations between Dex and Em was entertaining and I did enjoy the banter between them both.
I'm just not sure where I stopped caring or lost interest - maybe when Dex got married.... I think the relationship between Dex and Em lack tension, passion, intrigue.... it just didn't grab me as a reader and pull me in.
It was a nice light read for sure & I would recommend it as that, but anything more than that, it definitely isn't.
Having said that, I will be interested to see the film version of the book.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
one day
AN AMAZING READ. BETTER THAN THE FILM BY FAR AND VERY TRUE TO LIFE FOR MANY PEOPLE ALL OVER THE WORLD. GET IT AND READ IT!
Published 5 days ago by ANKA
English American Psycho
It's sort of like an English American Psycho. Nicholls's prose creeps along from noun to noun like fingers. Read more
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Not quite the instant classic that some people think. Nevertheless, a funny and deeply moving love story charting the lives of two friends over twenty years. Read more
Published 8 days ago by J & K
Holiday read that left me feeling very upset and angry
I got this to take on my sunshine holidays last summer. I wanted to read this much hyped book before seeing the film. Read more
Published 13 days ago by Jane Austen
One Day by David Nicholls
Did not know quite what to expect but had seen very positive reviews I was very pleasantly surprised and I really enjoyed the characters and felt I got to know them as the writing... Read more
Published 15 days ago by DS Reid
Pleasant enough
It was a cute story - pleasant slop. Only memorable because everyone thought it was amazing but its just your usual twee story. Not even the film changed my mind.
Published 17 days ago by debsylevine
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It's an enjoyable and very pleasant read, which I would recommend as holiday reading. However, I didn't find it quite satisfying enough for 4 stars, and would have preferred to... Read more
Published 17 days ago by "Dr Hutch"
Not quite as good as I thought it would be.
I found it slightly disappointing that the story kept going back and forwards so much. Curiosity from my own student days.
Published 18 days ago by A. Cairns
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