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Sweet Sorrow

Hardcover / ISBN-13: 9781444715408

Price: £20

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THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER

‘David Nicholls is that rarest of literary creatures: a genuinely brilliant, genuinely popular novelist.’ – Stuart Maconie, in New Statesman’s Best Books of 2020

‘That most rare and coveted of literary feats: a popular novel of serious merit, a bestseller that will also endure.’ Observer

‘Triumph … the sense of nostalgia is visceral and intense, almost time-bending.’ The Sunday Times

‘Pitch perfect … Exquisite … Terrific … Very funny … Though Sweet Sorrow is certainly pulse-quickening enough to absorb readers through this summer’s airport delays and rained-off beach days, it’s no escapist fantasy. The tale of Charlie and Fran will linger long beyond your tan.’ Telegraph

One life-changing summer
Charlie meets Fran…

In 1997, Charlie Lewis is the kind of boy you don’t remember in the school photograph. His exams have not gone well. At home he is looking after his father, when surely it should be the other way round, and if he thinks about the future at all, it is with a kind of dread.

Then Fran Fisher bursts into his life and despite himself, Charlie begins to hope.

But if Charlie wants to be with Fran, he must take on a challenge that could lose him the respect of his friends and require him to become a different person. He must join the Company. And if the Company sounds like a cult, the truth is even more appalling.

The price of hope, it seems, is Shakespeare.

Poignant, funny, enchanting, devastating, Sweet Sorrow is a tragicomedy about the rocky path to adulthood and the confusion of family life, a celebration of the reviving power of friendship and that brief, searing explosion of first love that can only be looked at directly after it has burned out.

‘A compassionate, intelligent look at the raw pain and loneliness of a teenage boy, the everyday miracle of first love and the perennial power of Shakespeare’s language.’ Spectator

‘A superbly written, beautifully observed account of teenage life, love, family dysfunction and friendship, which builds to a stunningly poignant ending.’ Heat

‘The author of Us and of course One Day has never written with more tenderness and insight than in this bittersweet story … perfectly captures the dizzying highs and lows of first love.’ Daily Express

‘Such a beautiful book. Captures perfectly a moment in time we’ve all experienced.’ Graham Norton

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Reviews

A master of the bittersweet coming-of-age novel
Herald
Nicholls perfectly captures the dizzying highs and lows of first love
Daily Express
Affirms once again Nicholls' talent for unearthing the special in the ordinary
Metro
He's such a genius. His novels are relatable and recognisable, but also surprising, breath-taking and life-enhancing
Nina Stibbe, author of LOVE, NINA
A big-hearted book with wonderful set-pieces . . . beautifully funny and touching . . . his books always seem as fresh as they are wise and funny
Literary Review
Full of the joy and pain of first love, fans who fell for bestseller One Day, ten years ago, won't be disappointed
Sunday Mirror
Such a beautiful book. Captures perfectly a moment in time we've all experienced
Graham Norton
I don't think anyone writing right now captures youth and adolescence better; I'm not sure anyone even gets close
Jenny Colgan, author of THE LITTLE SHOP OF HAPPY-EVER-AFTER
Nicholls' literary talents are impressive . . . the sense of nostalgia is visceral and intense, almost time-bending
Sunday Times
It's just perfect in every way
Jill Mansell, author of SHOULD I TELL YOU?
No one else writes novels that are both relatable and revelatory in the way he does
Alex Peake-Tomkinson, Evening Standard
Full of wisdom, poignancy and laughs
Mail on Sunday
It's everything a story should be. Beautiful and clear and heartfelt, and it will do what all brilliant stories do: it will find the very pinpoint of who you are and it will stay there
Joanna Cannon, author of WILL YOU READ THIS, PLEASE?
A classic coming of age novel with universal truths teased out with remarkable perception
Irish Times
Astutely observed, and almost painfully nostalgic, Sweet Sorrow reads like a true story
Clare Mackintosh, author of THE LAST PARTY
Funny, engaging and moving, another triumph from the brilliant David Nicholls
John Boyne, author of THE HEART'S INVISIBLE FURIES
This is Nicholls' talent - what really sets this story apart is the dialogue: funny, telling, laughter-inducing, he's hard to beat
Stylist
Very funny and heart wrenchingly tender
Grazia
A book that will find its way into your heart and set up home . . . this story perfectly captures the awkwardness and poignancy of first love
Red
Adrian Mole meets The Swish Of The Curtain in this lovely coming-of-age romcom about acting and the class divide
Daily Mail
Written with great comic panache and generosity of spirit, it is Nicholls' most mature and compelling novel so far
i paper
Written with great comic panache and generosity of spirit, it is Nicholls' most mature and compelling novel so far
i paper
A beautiful paean to young love . . . Here he proves that he can still pull off that most rare and coveted of literary feats: a popular novel of serious merit, a bestseller that will also endure
Alex Preston, Observer
Here he proves that he can still pull off that most rare and coveted of literary feats: a popular novel of serious merit, a bestseller that will also endure
Observer
If ever there was an author perfect to take with you on holiday (so to speak), it's David Nicholls'
Stella
If ever there was an author perfect to take with you on holiday (so to speak), it's David Nicholls
Stella
A superbly written, beautifully observed account of teenage life, love, family dysfunction and friendship, which builds to a stunningly poignant ending
Heat
A superbly written, beautifully observed account of teenage life, love, family dysfunction and friendship, which builds to a stunningly poignant ending
Heat
Very funny and heart wrenchingly tender.
Grazia
No other writer breaks my heart and then partially bandages it back together quite like Nicholls does. Sweet Sorrow is an absolute must-read
Sheerluxe
No other writer breaks my heart and then partially bandages it back together quite like Nicholls does. Sweet Sorrow is an absolute must-read
Sheerluxe
Interesting, moving, hilarious and sad at the same time
Scotsman
Interesting, moving, hilarious and sad at the same time
Scotsman
A classic coming of age novel with universal truths teased out with remarkable perception
Irish Times
A funny, relatable coming-of-age story
Sun
A funny, relatable coming-of-age story
The Sun
Fizzing . . . a funny, affectionate exploration of first love
Guardian
Sweet Sorrow is a funny, affectionate exploration of first love
Guardian
Piercingly observant, gloriously funny and achingly sad, this is David Nicholls' best book yet
Daily Mirror
A delicious, pensive summer read
Press Association
A compassionate, intelligent look at the raw pain and loneliness of a teenage boy, the everyday miracle of first love and the perennial power of Shakespeare's language
Spectator
A compassionate, intelligent look at the raw pain and loneliness of a teenage boy, the everyday miracle of first love and the perennial power of Shakespeare's language
Spectator
Once again, he has pulled off that "most rare and coveted of literary feats": a popular novel that will also endure.
The Week
Pitch perfect . . . Exquisite . . . Terrific . . . Very funny . . . Though Sweet Sorrow is certainly pulse-quickening enough to absorb readers through this summer's airport delays and rained-off beach days, it's no escapist fantasy. The tale of Charlie and Fran will linger long beyond your tan
Daily Telegraph
Sweet Sorrow manages to be interesting, moving, hilarious and sad at the same time. I know when my heartstrings are being pulled, but tugged they assuredly were
Scotland on Sunday
A glorious escape to the sunlit uplands of the 1990s, where a teenager first finds love
Financial Times
Funny and nostalgic tale of first love
Sydney Morning Herald
Capturing nostalgia for long endless summers as well as for the strangeness that is friendships among those cast together in a play . . . a beautiful coming of age story
Best Books of the Year, AU Review
I'm not sure there has ever been a better book to read while by the sea. The nostalgia, the humour, the deep understanding of adolescent love and indeed the sorrow. It's such a brilliant book
i News
A witty and tender evocation of young love
Robert Webb, Guardian
A devastatingly honest exploration of first love, razor-sharp reflections on friendship - oh, and some snort out loud funny moments
George Aligiah, Guardian
David Nicholls is that rarest of literary creatures: a genuinely brilliant, genuinely popular novelist. His latest, Sweet Sorrow, is more than just poignant and warm and funny. There are piercing apercus and writing that's both precise and poetic, lyrical and tough
Stuart Maconie, Best Books of the Year, New Statesman
David Nicholls [is] again on top form with Sweet Sorrow . . . a gorgeous tribute to young love . . . and it's got plenty of humour too
You Magazine
Eloquent . . . dazzles with wit and shrewd self-reflection
People
A tale of first love that hits all the right notes . . . [it] just might be the sweetest book to brighten your late summer
Washington Post
Delectable . . . Nicholls treats you to a satisfying glimpse into the future, where characters make a curtain call as adults . . . Bombshells abound
New York Times Book Review