Book Review: You Are Here by David Nicholls – a witty, feel-good read about hiking and the human heart

I’d seen a bit of David Nicholls on the small screen – the movie of One Day and the TV adaptation of Us – but You Are Here is the first time I’ve actually read a David Nicholls novel. And having just turned the last page, I realise now what I’ve been missing. Because, You Are Here is simply wonderful. The writing, the humour, the characters and the emotions. They’re all there in a perfect package – all that you could want in a book.

The story’s narration alternates between two people: Marnie, a long time single and thirty-eight, who works as a freelance editor from her rented flat in London; and Michael, a recently-separated geography teacher from York. Both are a bit sad and lonely. Marnie has been bruised by her marriage to overbearing, unfaithful Neil, and now that her friends all seem to be married, mostly with kids, she’s dropped out of the loop, doesn’t see anyone, often stays in her flat for days on end. Michael has not recovered from his wife leaving him or from an assault which left him with bouts of PTSD and feeling a coward.

So it’s up to mutual friend Cleo to fix them both up with someone, if only she can drag Marnie north for a hike – a chunk of the Coast to Coast Walk, which Michael, a committed walker, is keen to complete, preferably alone for as much as possible. Michael does a lot of walking as he hates going home. Cleo brings along her thirteen-year-old son as well as gorgeous Conrad, a pharmacist also from London, she’s hoping to set Marnie up with. A pity Tessa couldn’t make it – she loves doing triathlons so would suit Michael well with his love of the outdoors.

But he must not teach. He would be travelling with adults who had no need or desire to learn about drumlins and moraines. The train ticked and hummed, then began to crawl, rattling past sooty Victorian buildings, warehouses, and the new light industry at the edge of town, the sky widening like a cinema screen, opening on to farm and woodland. Seated diagonally across the aisle, the woman with the poorly fitted rucksack was typing noisily but without a table, so that the laptop kept slipping down her new trousers towards her new boots. What was so important that it should take precedence over the view? She was certainly making a big show of it, tutting and blowing up her fringe. It was a nice face, amused and amusing, with a city haircut (was it a ‘bob’? He wanted to call it a ‘bob’) and more make-up than you’d expect on a walker, sometimes rolling her eyes or clapping her hand to her flushed cheek at the words on the screen. He noticed that she was perspiring slightly. Noticed, too, that he’d stopped looking at the view.

But things don’t go as planned for Cleo, and it’s just as well, when soon the weather conspires to leave just Michael and Marnie on the walk, Conrad with no wet weather gear, and Cleo’s son missing his friends. Michael might have hoped Marnie would pike out too, but she’s invested so much in outdoor gear for the trip, and has packed three nice dresses and 12 pairs of knickers, so it seems absurd not to tag along for another day at least.

The two make an awkward couple at first, struggling through the rain and having hiked a number of New Zealand’s ‘great walks’ for the most part in the rain, I really felt for them. But it’s the grit that makes the pearl, and if they can get along enough, who knows what might happen. As a reader, you soon realise the two are better suited than Michael would be with Tessa or Marnie would be with Conrad – Michael is what Cleo describes as wry, and seems to get Marnie’s sense of humour, the jokes no one else seems to notice.

This is a delightful read – I steamed through it – the writing is just so polished but not in a way that makes you think it’s polished. The dialogue is lively and funny – you can tell this will make another lovely movie. But underneath, Nicholls is aware that he’s dealing with two people who have stuff to deal with. He shows a fine understanding of the workings of the human heart and while there is a lot that has you laughing out loud, there are also moments that make you sigh or clutch your chest.

As I said before, this is a perfect book, with two engaging characters you are happy to spend time with, even on a hill walk in the rain. There is a lot of scenery, which is described as much as it needs to be but not so much that it intrudes. I enjoyed the B&Bs and hotels with their themed rooms – one naming its rooms for freshwater fish (Michael finds himself in Chubb). So you get the experience of the walk without having to put on hiking boots. All in all David Nicholls doesn’t put a hiking booted-foot wrong. You Are Here is a five-star read from me.