ONE DAY– David Nicholls

This book is almost in every part hilarious and funny, but it is a reflection of the real life.

This book is about a special relationship, it starts describing the first meeting between the main characters. They are two high school (college) students, a boy and a girl, they are in Edinburgh but they have big dreams, they want to live in a bigger city, considering Edinburgh provincial.

The first encounter is around their graduation, Dexter comes from a rich family, he is the dreamer, Emma comes from a poor family, she is a good-student, and a dreamer as well. They started a weird relationships: sex at the very beginning and friendship based on solid shared values for all the second part of the book.

The title “One day” is perfect to describe the style of the narration. The Author opens a window onto the characters' lives every 15th of July, for many years. Emma and Dexter seem to be a winning team from the first chapters, all their friends know it but they live separate lives: Dexter travels a lot, Emma works a lot (Lower class work in a restaurant); Dexter has a lot of relationships and occasional lovers, Emma is strictly concentrated on making a life with a small income she has no time for dreams or a love life; Emma writes long letters to Dexter, he writes back short postcards...

We know what is happening between them thanks to the 15th of July, sometimes they meet, sometimes they talk on the phone, once they go on holiday together. That holiday in Greece is the revelation for the reader. Even if you know that they are probably in love from the beginning you are never sure, but during the holiday the author writes the thoughts of the couple: they desire each other but they resist the temptation with the intent of protecting their friendship.

They both live in London, but they have separate lives, swinging up and down with luck in alternate moments. They meet sometimes but Dexter is now “famous” as TV presenter, he is posh and drunk most of the time, his life is going very badly and his mother is seriously sick. Emma is angry with him because he is a different, horrible person now. She is still modest, a teacher with some time to write and realize (partially her dream). They have different relationships again, Dexter is almost married and saved from a bad destiny by a rich and pretty girl, Emma is a  writer for teens, she quits teaching after a love story with her (married) principal, she is wealthy now ...and they meet again. The reader is waiting for the love story... but no! All this plot is revealed with a sparkling style, you can't stop reading, it's intriguing. “Envy was just the tax you paid on success”, Dexter said when he met Emma and they fight, she left him in the restaurant, really angry again. After nice descriptions of two ordinary lives (always on that day), they met and finally start that super relation you are waiting from the beginning! Wonderful love life with high and low moments, projects, successes and frustrations...but life is life and sometimes it's too hard for normal people.