One Day, David Nicholls (Hodder & Stoughton)
by Patrick O'Connor
WE first meet Emma and Dexter on Friday, July 15, 1988, lying side by side each other in bed in a “shabby rented room” in Edinburgh.
Emma and Dexter are in their early 20s and are about to leave university. They ended up together after a drunken post-graduation celebration but this is no frantic, lustful liaison.
“Let's just cuddle, shall we?” says Emma.
“Of course. If you want,” replies Dexter.
And so begins a 'best friends' relationship and One Day follows them both through life's trials and tribulations between 1988 and 2007.
Emma is bookish, low on self-esteem, Dexter is brash and self-confident. They would seem to have little in common but the expert way in which Nicholls develops their characters quickly has us hooked.
Each chapter revolves around the same day and then moves on a year. Fortunes ebb and flow, partners arrive and depart but somehow Emma and Dexter always re-connect.
The format has of course been done before but we become so attached to Emma and Dexter and are desperate to find out what happens to them.
One Day is a delightful read, comic, romantic and at times extremely sad.