One Day

This book is about a young man and woman who had a chance encounter as university students and became close friends. This book follows a will-they-won’t-they trajectory and struck a deep chord with me because it shows how one serendipitous encounter can change your life forever and how relationships of all nature are dynamic, subject to ebb and flow. The differences in character between the protagonists—bookish, no-nonsense Emma and the laissez-faire playboy Dexter—also added to the dramatic and romantic tension.

This novel has a strange mix of lightness and depth that I found very satisfying. I also enjoyed the 2011… show more.

I open this book whenever I need a good cry. I covet books that surprise me, and not many romances are true heartbreakers. This one is just that, and it took my breath away.

There are different ways to tell love stories; this isn’t a typical summertime romance. It’s deep, beautiful, and devastating. As a writer, I was inspired by the structure, which shows Emma and Dexter’s characters turning into fully wonderful adults as we visit them every July 15th, year after year. 

Time is at the very heart of this book, and I adored the structure of it, relishing the chance to drop in on the lives of Emma and Dexter each July 15 over two decades. It’s a brilliant storytelling conceit, allowing Nicholls to present a series of snapshots of an ebbing and flowing relationship that builds into an emotionally affecting whole.

By the end, I felt like I had spent time not with two characters but with two very familiar people–flawed, frustrating, unpredictable, but always believable, always understandable.

Is One Day a modern classic? After the hype had died down, I bought a battered copy second-hand from a charity shop. Over a decade since reading it, I still mentally return to Dex and Em: what was and what could’ve been.

There’s also something in the beautiful narrative structure – where we see both sides of their story over time – that makes me ponder the way we can never fully know another person. Even when they are familiar to us. Perhaps especially then.

We all need a good love story, especially one that (spoiler alert) isn’t contingent on a Walt Disney-esque happy ending. One Day follows the near misses of Emma and Dexter over decades of almost falling in love. As you may expect, it’s a bittersweet, high-brow romcom, that gives inspiration to those who are still searching.