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One Day | 
| Author: David Nicholls
Publisher: Hodder Paperbacks
Category: Book
List Price: £7.99
Buy New: £3.99
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Rating:  302 reviews
Sales Rank: 5
Media: Paperback
Pages: 448
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 7.7 x 5.1 x 1.3
ISBN: 0340896981
EAN: 9780340896983
ASIN: 0340896981
Publication Date: February 4, 2010
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Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours
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Product Description
'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!' The Times
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 302
 If you like life, you'll like this June 18, 2009
Matthew Gracie (Bristol, England)
231 out of 248 found this review helpful
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.
Brilliant July 13, 2009
Nicholas F. Holliday
40 out of 43 found this review helpful
One of the best novels I`ve ever read. The characters are likeable and you can`t help yourself willing them to get together. The concept is fantastic; You never really know what happens immediately after the end of each chapter, as the next one takes place exactly one year later. I`m not entirely sure whether this should be classed as a romantic comedy; It`s a novel about relationships that should appeal to both men and women. Sure, Emma Mayhew comes out with a lot of amusing one-liners, but that`s not really what One Day is about. There`s no sloppy romanticism here either, no sex scenes described in elaborate euphemisms. This book is about realistic characters feeling the sort of emotions we have all felt. All human life is here in this novel and it`s utterly compelling.
I`m not usually one to get emotional over books and films, but I found myself close to tears at some points in One Day. One page in particular, I had to go back and re-read several times, it affected me so much.
One more thing: If you`re the type of person who likes to read the last page of a novel to see how it all turns out, don`t bother. The last couple of pages will tell you nothing at all.
A beguiling and magical tale August 24, 2009
P. Whelerton (York, England)
75 out of 83 found this review helpful
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.
Best read for years July 3, 2009
S. Chadwick (England)
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
The most thought provoking book I have ever read. I cannot recommend it highly enough - this is no simple chick-lit join-the-dot romance, there is a real depth to the characters and situations making it so much more interesting and enjoyable - and rare. Definitely one to read again and again.
Wonderful book July 2, 2009
Margaret Sutton (Cheshire, UK)
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
I have just finished this book and loved it. I wanted to ration my reading to a few pages a day so I wouldnt finish it, but had to keep reading to find out what happens to Dexter and Emma.I felt I knew them personally and hated saying good bye. I read a lot and thid is one of the best books ever!!!
Showing reviews 1-5 of 302
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