The Buzz...About Books

I suppose the important thing is to make some sort of difference, she said. You know, actually change something.
What, like ‘change the world’ you mean?
Not the whole entire world. Just the little bit around you.

Now that summer is winding down, I may have found the perfect summer read.  One Day by David Nicholls is an exceptional story of a very special friendship, and I guarantee it will be the fastest 435 pages you’ll ever read.

Emma Morley and Dexter Mayhew meet at the end of university and spend one night together.  Young and idealistic, their conversation that night includes their lofty ambitions to save the world, at the same time imagining what each other will look like at the unimaginable age of 40.  The next day they go their separate ways but as the story unfolds we discover that they are never apart from each other for long.   

Each chapter of this unpredictable novel takes place on the anniversary of the first night they met—July 15, 1988—and continues for 20 years.  As the years go by we learn more about Emma and Dexter and the direction their lives are taking.  We see how they grow and change just as the world around them does the same.

One Day has been compared to the works of Nick Hornby and Tony Parsons and it definitely contains some of the best qualities of both authors: happiness, sadness, humour, humanity, honesty, and wisdom.  A book not to be missed—no matter what the season.

David Nicholls is the author of A Question of Attraction and The Understudy.

Review courtesy of Margot