I was given a book for my birthday this year by my aunt. Being that my “to read” pile has been pretty tall lately, I have only just gotten to it. I wish I had picked it up sooner. “One Day” by David Nicholls was a really enjoyable read. At first glance, one might think that it is a romance. But lumping it in that category would be doing it a terrible injustice. “One Day” is more accurately, a story about two people’s lives and how intimately two lives can weave together.

The story follows Emma and Dexter through twenty years. It begins with a fateful night at the end of college where they meet and follows their lives, friendship, and relationships through the next twenty years. These are not easy lives and they are not simple lives. Dexter begins as a young, handsome, wealthy man who has never had to work hard for anything. Everything always came too easy for him. Emma is passionate about changing the world and works hard to make a difference. However, both end up suffering sadness, humiliation, ups and downs and severe disappointment with life. At times they aren’t friends at all, but at other times, they can be more. It is their long friendship that is the base of their lives, despite the fact that they are social and political opposites. Their friendship is the one thing they can always fall back on when times are hard. Dex and Em. Em and Dex.

Have you seen “The Way We Were”? The movie with Barbara Streisand and Robert Redford? Both looking young and beautiful and living through their lives together? Well, it is a similar premise with different details. Oh, and they’re British.

So there you have it. If you like “The Way We Were”, and you don’t mind the idea of the character’s lives being a little grimier and more disillusioned, then you’ll like this book. It was really engaging. The writing was good. The characters had a depth that you rarely come across in many modern novels. By the end, you know Dexter and Emma. You could see them walk into your living room. You feel for their losses and celebrate their triumphs.

These aren’t lives that are always pretty. It isn’t a simple, sweeping romance with a beautiful glowing ending, but these are characters that you will be glad that you took some time to get to know.

It’s one of the better things I’ve read lately. Check it out. It won the Popular Fiction Best Book of the Year award last month at the Galaxy awards.