David Nicholls, You Are Here, Sceptre 2024
David Nicholls is probably best known for his 2009 light romantic comedy One Day, televised charmingly here in the UK not so long ago, and filmed starring Anne Hathaway in 2011. You Are Here has a similar formula: a high-concept basis for the plot, featuring a slightly mismatched couple (Marnie and Michael) who are not initially attracted to each other but who are clearly destined to overcome all obstacles and get together – that’s not a spoiler; Nicholls isn’t in the business of disappointing reader expectations.
The concept here is that the protagonists, two unhappily and lonely divorced 30-somethings, join a walking party across the Pennines in northern England, each having been set up by well-meaning matchmaking friends to hook up with someone else. For various reasons this doesn’t work out, meaning they are increasingly thrown together.
It’s a fairly unoriginal but pleasingly realised set-up. They’re not exactly Kate and Petruchio in The Taming of the Shrew, but there’s just enough reticence and indifference at the start to make their gradual rapprochement appealing.
Michael is still smarting at the break-up of his marriage, and holds a faint hope of reconciliation with his ex-wife, who he intends to meet up with during the hike. This provides a rare moment of drama and crisis in the otherwise smooth-flowing plot.
As a geography teacher he delights in holding forth at length about the topography and geology of the hiking route, and isn’t too good at social frivolity. Marnie uses her slightly sharp sense of humour as a means of entertaining others but also keeping them at arm’s length. Not surprisingly, these tendencies add a bit of tension to the potential romance.
An interesting note is the sketch-map of the section of the route that prefaces each chapter, so that the novel is structured a little like one of the famous Lakeland guides by Wainwright. I can’t help thinking that Nicholls had half an eye on a potential film script in setting the novel in such a picturesque location.
It’s an undemanding, warmly satisfying read.
My thanks to Cornwall library service for providing the book.