You Are Here

My God, I didn't plan on liking this. I expected it to be a quick, lightweight, Jane Austen-ian, two cranky middleaged people meet cute. I suppose it is that, but the writing is so sharp, so funny, so well-observed that it becomes more than the sum of it's parts.

I ended up liking it a lot. It's not even a guilty pleasure.

There's a lot that appealed in this book before I even opened the front cover, not least the fact that I met my husband on a walking holiday in the north of England almost exactly 25 years ago, if nothing so strenuous as the coast-to-coast walk.

Turning his focus alternately on Marnie and Michael, David Nicholls allows the reader to follow them from trying to wriggle out of social commitments to being *persuaded* to join a mini-break with strangers walking through the Lake District, their preparations and arrival. This was a very neat stylistic device, as the separate narrative strands soon became joined, and it became more difficult to tell whether the spotlight in this section was on Marnie or Michael.

Soon it is just the two of them show more as the others capitulate in the face of the atrocious English weather, and they steadily make their way from Cumbria into Yorkshire. On the way they allow themselves to open up to each other, allowing the other person (and the reader) to get to know and to care about them. I found this easier with Michael than with Marnie, despite being able to recognise myself easily in her in parts; at one point I found her mannerisms so grating and embarrassing that I briefly considered throwing in the towel. Looking back, I can see that these were the actions and utterances of a person with low self-confidence over-compensating in social situations, but it wasn't half painful to watch. I expect that introverts will find a lot of common ground between themselves and the characters. I'm glad I persevered, though, as the feelings between them grow from irritating stranger to friend to something more.

The path we take with them is thought-provoking, poignant and also wryly humorous, with a couple of genuine chuckles, and Nicholls manages to paint the landscape they traverse in exquisite detail, so that it felt at times as if I was an invisible companion on the journey, marvelling at nature's majesty or wanting to jump on the bus with Marnie when it all got a bit too much in the relentless rain. Let's just say that not everything goes smoothly, but Nicholls manages to nail the ending, which was just right :) show less

With the number of glowing reviews You Are Here was getting, I was a bit wary when I was picking it up to read. Would I love Marnie and Michael's trek across the country as much as everyone else? I needn't have worried. I was in David Nicholls' safe hands and I adored this wonderful and witty story.

Marnie and Michael meet when they are part of a small group put together to enjoy a few days walking. They couldn't be more different. Michael is a seasoned walker, a man getting more and more used to his own company, whereas Marnie is a city dweller, also used to being alone but not exactly thriving on it. Michael starts off with an intention to walk coast to coast from Cumbria to North Yorkshire and along the way, often (and quite show more unexpectedly) with Marnie by his side, a desire for change starts to creep over both of them.

The story is told in chapters alternately from both points of view and it gave a real insight into what each character was thinking. I don't think a chapter went by when I didn't laugh out loud. The wry, observational humour is written to perfection, and yet this is also such a poignant read, a thoughtful book that never descends into melancholy, and felt true to life and the power of human emotions.

You Are Here was a complete joy to read. I loved every second of my journey with Michael and Marnie, made all the better for the fact that it wasn't me out there in my waterproofs getting soaked through, sweaty and muddy! Despite that, it left me *almost* fancying an epic walk across the country myself because Nicholls writes it so beautifully. This is a character driven ode to the windswept and stunning landscapes to be found outside our own enclosed worlds, a story of second chances and chance encounters. I thought it was superb. show less

I won’t waste your time with a synopsis. The blurb is there for all to see and it’s quite accurate. One Day is one of my favourite novels and I was beyond excited to read You Are Here. When I was approved for an ARC, I began to read immediately, literally devouring the short chapters. Unfortunately, it was a thundering disappointment.

Marnie initially came across as a character of my heart. Bookish, stuck in a job which gives her little satisfaction of late, cherishing her independence, with a deep love for London. I mean come on, she carries her much-loved Wuthering Heights paperback everywhere. This alone should have been enough to make me adore her. And I did, I swear to God I did, until she started to make an utter fool of show more herself. She became insufferable. The way she throws herself into a heinous secondary character is embarrassing. Her bimbo-girly giggles at the most inappropriate of times. I am sorry to say that she acted like the exact type of woman I loathe and she ruined the entire novel for me. After all, when you have a weak main character in a story of 300+ pages and a cast of two characters (almost exclusively…), the odds are not in the reader’s favour. I actually felt sorry for Michael for having to deal with three banshees. Marnie, Nat and Cleo. Their characters were sex-starved hyenas.

No, thank you. I am a scholar, not an idiot.

Now Michael seemed to me as the driving force of the novel. A man in love with his loneliness, insecure but true to his principles, condemned to meet women who want to change him because THEY ARE WOMEN AND THEY ARE ALWAYS RIGHT, DAMN IT! I am so tired of this bloody trope in Contemporary Literature. Just stop.

In fact, I felt that poor Michael put up with Marnie’s idiotic irony for far too long. But then again, we teachers are blessed with endless patience when dealing with all kinds of idiots. In any case, these two are important contestants in the competition for the most boring, lifeless, irritating couple in literary history. Characterization in combination with dialogue that seemed straight off the cheesiest Hollywood rom-coms made for illiterate zombies turned this novel into a nightmare.

It’s a pity. It truly is because Nicholls excels in creating atmosphere and in communicating the sense of place through vivid descriptions. I could ‘’see’’ London, the moors and the rugged beauty of the British coast. Even the various hotels and B & Bs. And then, you have a short scene describing an unnecessary, shocking death and Marnie’s response was so inappropriate I would have slapped her right there and then had she been an actual person crossing my path. Girl, you want to open your legs, we get it. Have some decency, for God’s sake! Find a bush or something.

So, 300 + pages of two cardboard boxes walking and walking. And talking and talking. Do I need pages after pages after pages of interactions that make me vomit and a female protagonist who embarrasses herself every time she opens her stupid mouth? I certainly don’t. For me, this novel is easily included in the disasters of this reading year.

Many thanks to Hodder & Stoughton and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

My reviews can also be found on https://theopinionatedreaderblog.wordpress.com/ show less

4.5 or so. British romance - so wryly humorous - 2 'middle aged' (38 and 42) introverts are brought together by a mutual friend and a walking 'holiday' in the Lake Country - Michael is a seasoned hiker it is the only thing that has kept him whole after an assault and his marriage to Natasha fell apart. Marnie is not. She is a Londoner through and through - walking city streets to get to the next tube stop - not for scenery or exercise or achievement. But their mutual friend, Cleo organizes this ramble and they are both guilted into it. No immediate sparks, but after 2 days of walking in which everyone else in the party bails, Marnie and Michael press on, getting to know each other and their fears and foibles. Something about walking - show more single file or shoulder to shoulder - makes it easier to talk and tell their stories. Marnie is also divorced - Neil was a twat - and she is comfortably alone for years now, though increasingly isolated and lonely. Marnie and Michael's conversations are so deadpan - Marnie is truly hilarious in her ability to riff and spin out scenarios and this playfulness is appealing to the dull, geography teacher. The hike from west to east, shore to shore across Britain's middle is really the right vehicle to move them each forward, individually and together. Very short chapters and accompanying maps make this a forward-moving narrative. Nicholls likes his characters and is rooting for them, and the reader is too. An oblique and literary romance well worth the read. show less

Surprise! I did not expect to like this book as I usually run from anything labelled "romance," but it really drew me in. Marnie is a 38-year old divorced woman who works as a free lance editor; her current assignment is a poorly written erotic novel. Michael, 42, is a geography teacher reluctantly facing divorce. Their mutual friend Cleo invites them and two other friends, Tessa and Conrad, to join her and her teenage son Anthony on a coast-to-coast trek through Northern England. Michael, an experienced walker, will lead them. Concerned that Marnie and Michael have both increasingly withdrawn from company and given up on finding a new love, Cleo anticipates that Michael will pair up with the "outdoorsy" Tessa and Marnie with handsome show more pharmacist Conrad. But things change when Tessa cancels and Conrad leaves early in the walk.

One of the strengths of the novel is the description of the passing landscape, the changing weather, and the challenges of the rugged walk, all of which Michael enjoys but the others find boring and exhausting. Marnie has a moment with Conrad during their first hotel stop, but he leaves the next morning; the walk just isn't his thing. Soon after, when Anthony gets bored, he and Cleo also leave, promising to catch up later. But Marnie, despite her complaints, enjoys the challenge and decides to keep on for one more day . . .and one more . . . and one more. Along the way, she and Michael have conversations that are both funny and sad and learn that they have more in common than they initially thought.

So yeah, it's a love story. But it's also a study of loss, loneliness, and middle-aged yearning for companionship, lightened up with humor and a landscape that mirrors the main characters' changing emotions. Halfway through, I realized that I was enjoying You Are Here, despite it being much lighter fare than my usual reading. Marnie and Michael are well-drawn characters, and their growing relationship is believable. I recommend the book to anyone looking for a lighter yet not frivolous read. show less

4.75 Stars. With David Nicholls’ iconic novel One Day (and its audiobook) ranking amongst my all-time favourite reading/ listening experiences, I picked up his most recent release You Are Here with very high expectations. So, I am pleased to report that he has conjured up something uniquely special once again.

Key to this novel’s success are Nicholls’

- achingly authentic characters,
- perceptive depiction of the post-pandemic mid-life zeitgeist and
- ability to tap into the wellspring of emotion on that thin line between funny and sad.

Marnie has long been a devourer of books and sponge for all the information and ideas they contain.

Her work-from-home proofreading profession means she thinks a little more deeply about the information show more people convey, critiquing word choices, including her own, on autopilot. This, and her use of humour as a defence mechanism, routinely makes for hilarious contrasts between her inner thoughts during conversations and the words that come out of her mouth.

In You Are Here, readers are treated to wonderfully wry and clever, literary and pop-culture fuelled banter when David Nicholls pairs Marnie with a match for her innate intelligence and curiosity in Michael. Continue reading: https://www.bookloverbookreviews.com/2025/02/you-are-here-david-nicholls.html show less