Adrift after his wife's departure, Michael has begun taking himself on long, solitary walks across the English countryside. Becoming ever more reclusive, he'll do anything to avoid his empty house. Marnie, on the other hand, is stuck. Hiding alone in her London flat, she avoids old friends and any reminders of her selfish ex-husband. When a mutual friend and some unpredictable weather conspire to toss Michael and Marnie together, neither of them can think of anything worse. Until, of course, they discover exactly what they've been looking for.
Captivating ... Nicholls has fashioned an ideal structure for an affectingly hard-won romance ... Nicholls’s dialogue is flawless (he’s also an experienced screenwriter) and even his descriptions of bogs and muck can enchant. The novel is sharp-tongued and irresistible, the most intelligent treat.
A great comic novel that also asks the reader to think about the place of humour in fiction: there’s a dangerous proximity throughout the novel between laughter and tears ... Nicholls is superb on the landscape of this beautiful part of the world ... The reader becomes so invested in the outcome of this unspectacular, everyday, cagoule-clad romance that it makes the whole world shimmer with a kind of secret possibility, as if such narratives are everywhere, just out of sight.
If the plot is pedestrian, Mr. Nicholls keeps it going at a near-sprint, creating delightful agony for the reader ... Snappy banter and Mr. Nicholls’s endless supply of witty and literate observations make every page a pleasure ... Lightweight? Sure, but exactly the proper weight for a book that glides so elegantly to its destination.
