One Day - David Nicholls

'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?

WOW, WOW, WOW, this is one of the best books I have ever read! It is unbelievable.

I was thinking of reading this book for a whlile before I did and in a way I'm actually glad I waiting, it mean't I didn't have to finish it as soon! It was one of those books that makes you feel sad to be finishing and it very quickly became my favourite book.

The two main characters, Emma and Dexter have just graduated in 1988 from university and wonder what the future holds and the paths that their lives may take.  After four years of university and an infatuation with the handsome Dexter Mayhew, Emma Morley finally has a chance to be alone with him. But all does not go according to plan; Emma having bottled up her true feelings for Dexter for too long. With a large amount of optimism and a dream to do something that will change the world, Emma speaks of a passion and a dream to be involved in the creative arts; whilst Dexter, it seems, will meander through life, travelling and never really settling.

David Nicholls charts Emma and Dexter’s lives over the next twenty years, each chapter being set on the same day: 15^th July – the date of their graduation, with a different year for each chapter. Emma’s initial hopes of changing the world by theatre or writing seem to fizzle out into a string of dead end jobs, whereby Emma becomes the one searching for her path in life. Meanwhile Dexter, who at first appeared to be vague about his future, seems to have things more in order in his life.

The book has its darker moments of; death, alcohol abuse, drug problems and sordid love affairs, but these seem to weave into the tapestry of Emma and Dexter’s lives. When Dexter falls from grace, it is always Emma that he turns to first and for a time this is how their friendship functions. David captures a sense of harsh realism here, yet these problems are subtle suggestions rather than explicitly described. At first the book seemed to be a classic case of ‘will they, won’t they’ get together and a series of missed opportunities; but as I read on I soon came to realise that it was much more. David possesses the geniality of capturing a mere snapshot of a whole year in someone’s life in just One Day. Yet as you read on, the characters in the novel become two people that you know as well as you would know your friends, after all you are following there lives for 20 years. It is a coming of age story, but one that is set over a much longer period of time.

Without giving too much away, the ending is quite surprising – well at least it was to me!  It was so emotional and quite disappointing, due to the readers’ connection with the characters that has been established by the end. The novel itself however speaks so clearly of two lives that set out from university, fresh with ideas of an optimistic future and find that life is not always all you had hoped for.

If you haven't read this yet I just have one question for you, why not? No matter what kind of book you usually read I would highly recommend reading this. I don't know why anybody wouldn't enjoy this.