A review of the novel “You Are Here” by David Nicholls
The author of the outstandingly successful “One Day” has done it again, crafting an immensely readable and thoroughly enjoyable romantic novel. In the case of “One Day”, the stylistic device was a series of chapters set exactly one year after another. This time, the device is alternating chapters – each very short – from the respective viewpoints of the female and male characters as day by day they traverse the Northern England coast to coast walk popularised by Alfred Wainwright.
Marnie is 38, a copy editor living in London, divorced for many years. Michael is 42 a geography teacher in York, separated for a couple of years. Both have been damaged by their earlier relationships, are alone and lonely, and have not had sex for years. But they are very different: she the more free-spirited and funny, he the more introverted and obsessive. And trudging up hills and down dales in all weathers, all the while staying in indifferent accommodation, presents its own challenges.
Our intrepid middle-aged walkers have long ago left behind “the golden age of friendship, when having a supportive, loving community around you was a far greater priority than the vexed business of family, the strained performance of romance or the sulky obligations of work”. Now they fear that “The risks involved in romantic love, the potential for hurt and betrayal and indignity, far outweighed the consolations”. And yet …