If you've devoured David Nicholls' zeitgeist-defining novel One Day and caught the terrific Netflix screen adaptation then you might be wondering what else can match up. Fortunately we've assembled a list of other great books that deal deftly in love, friendship and page-turning prose to fill that One Day-sized gap in your life until the triumphant You Are Here arrives in April.
In the pantheon of literary love stories there are few books that can measure up to the emotional sweep and effervescent ideas of David Nicholls' One Day. Now over twenty years old, the celebrated novel has attracted a whole new generation of devoted fans through Netflix's brilliant television adaptation and, with a fresh story called You Are Here out in April, Nicholls is riding the crest of a formidable wave.
Central to One Day's enormous appeal is, of course, the emotional investment that readers put in to the will-they-won't-they relationship between Emma and Dexter. Across two decades we are shown both the exuberant joy and heartwrenching sadness of human connection in a way that few other writers can match. The three novels below all possess a similarly acute understanding of the human heart and the compromises and contradictions of romantic love - as does Nicholls' own sublime Sweet Sorrow.
In a blog piece on this very website Nicholls has stated that One Day 'seems to me now to be a story about friendship as much as love. Em and Dex are together for just a few pages, and the greater part of the novel is about their mutual support, conversation and care as well as the squabbles and the great falling-out.' The novels below all tackle the theme of friendship - all-male, all-female and the platonic love between a man and a woman - with a similar sensitivity and authenticity as Nicholls achieves in One Day.
Another key factor in One Day's success is its bold and original structure; plotting a friendship and potential romantic relationship across a single day each year for twenty years. Since the publication of Nicholls' masterpiece, numerous other love stories have played with form and structure to provide a portrait of how love and affection change over time. Below are three of the finest examples.
Finally, it would be remiss of us not to mention Nicholls' latest novel You Are Here. Whilst in many ways it is concerned with many of the same preoccupations as One Day, this touching tale of two middle aged people finding companionship - and maybe something more - whilst on an epic coast to coast walk is marked by the changes in outlook and literary style that Nicholls has undergone in the intervening two decades since the writing of One Day.
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