Tearjerker books: One Day

David Nicholls: One Day

I cry at the drop of a hat. Be it book, or movie or X Factor audition, it’s a dead cert that I’ll start blubbing sooner rather than later.

I recently read David Nicholls’ modern masterpiece One Day while on a beach holiday in Greece. Without getting into the specifics (spoilers!), there were several situations that reduced me to tears. However, Ian Whitehead’s letter to Dexter is hands-down the tearjerker of the book. Given the circumstances and the history between the two men, the poignancy of this short passage is positively visceral.

I lay on my sunlounger and wept until my sunnies steamed up. And then I wept some more.