One Day: David Nicholls

Sites of Interests: Author's Site 

 Publisher: Vintage Contemporaries | Published: May 24, 2011

Paperback | 448 pages | ISBN: 978-0307946713

Genre: Romantic Fiction

When I read the description of One Day I figured that it would be much like many other books about boy meets girl, boy and girl become friends, boy and girl realize they’re in love with each other, kiss kiss, hug hug, let’s get married. But I was surprised, pleasantly so. Yes boy does in fact meet girl, and yes boy and girl do become friends, but this book has so much more than those other sappy novels.


Emma and Dexter meet at a party the night after college graduation. They spend the night together, innocently so, and decide the next day that they will be nothing more than friends. The book progresses to show the two on one day, the same day, for the next twenty years. Some of these days they are together, most they are not. As the years go on and on, Emma and Dexter keep each other sane as they move to different parts of the world, muddle through mundane jobs, and find their place in the world. While Dexter is the rich playboy moving from country to country in search of his “true-calling” Emma is his bookish semi-political counterpart, constantly on the lookout for how she’s going to change the world. The two have absolutely nothing in common: Dexter floats through life with opportunities falling into his lap, Emma works mindlessly, knowing exactly what she wants but unable to get it. Strangely enough, the two remain the best of friends, for the most part.They say opposites attract, while quite true, they never note that these opposites will also slightly repel each other at times. Dexter’s laissez faire attitude and ability to get anything, even when not asking for it, annoys Emma to no end. Dexter can’t stand that Emma knows what she wants yet settles for something she doesn’t, because risk is too…well risky. So of course there are times when Emma and Dexter are nothing but ‘someone I once knew’ to each other. But the thing is, like magnets, they always come back to each other in the end.

This book was absolutely fantastic in its entirety. David Nicholls gives us a wonderful twist on the ‘boy-meets-girl’ storyline and shows a beautiful and real relationship between two people. That’s what was so wonderful about this book to me, everything was believable and I could see myself being friends with Emma and Dexter easily. Nothing in this book at all resembled a chick flick romance (which is great for me because I despise chick flicks). As cliché as it sounds, I could not put this book down. It doesn’t have any flashy romantic acts, exploding buildings, or elaborate murder mysteries…but it was real. It was a story of friendship, love between two people, and a relationship spanning over two decades. The only thing that makes this book better is the fact that a movie based on the book is coming out August 19th, starring Jim Sturgess (Across the Universe) and Anne Hathaway (The Devil Wears Prada). I implore everyone to go out and buy a copy of One Day and to see the movie in August. This book will surely be a classic read by all one day.

Many thanks to the publisher for the complimentary copy for purposes of review.