You Are Here, David Nicholls – book review: ‘touches a chord with its portrayal of the tiny failures of social interaction’

Marnie is not much of a walker.

In fact, she has to go out and buy a full set of outdoor gear when her friend Chloe invites her on a collective trek in Cumbria and Yorkshire.

Michael, on the other hand, walks with purpose – planning and organising on Chloe’s behalf, and intending to carry on alone after the group has dispersed.

What the pair share is middle-aged loneliness that has crept up on them following failed marriages and pandemic isolation.

David Nicholls. Photograph: Sophia Spring

You Are Here, the latest novel by Islington-based author David Nicholls, is a touching story of how Marnie and Michael edge slowly towards each other over hills, fells and much mud.

This is a romance that endears for its warts-and-all quality. Genuine hesitation and longing for the security of solitary life is mixed with anxious desire to please.

Misgivings and misunderstandings abound, incompatibilities pile up in embarrassing quantities. Yet gradually the two people emerge from their shells, even if the weather never quite obliges.

Written with sensitivity and wit, the novel touches a chord with its portrayal of the tiny failures of social interaction – that carefully-crafted joke that someone talks over, the inappropriate wardrobe choices and the missed cue that could have launched a passionate embrace.

Marnie and Michael have a satisfying realness to them, and if nothing in the story quite goes to plan, the end product will warm the soul on a cold winter’s night.

You Are Here by David Nicholls is published by Sceptre.
ISBN: 978-1-444-71544-6
RRP: £20