Sweet Sorrow: the Sunday Times bestseller from the author of One Day

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THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER '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

David Nicholls is the bestselling author of Sweet Sorrow, Us, The Understudy and Starter for Ten. One Day was published in 2009 to extraordinary critical acclaim. Published in 40 languages, it became a global bestseller, winning the 2010 Galaxy Book of the Year Award. David was named Author of the Year at the 2014 National Book Awards after his fourth novel, Us, was another no. 1 bestseller and was long-listed for the Man Booker Prize for Fiction. On screen, David has written adaptations of Far From the Madding Crowd, When Did You Last See Your Father? and Great Expectations, as well as turning his own novels, Starter for Ten and One Day, into feature films. His adaptation of Edward St. Aubyn's Patrick Melrose, starring Benedict Cumberbatch, was nominated for an Emmy and won him a BAFTA for best writer. Other works for TV include episodes of Cold Feet, Tess of the D'Urbervilles and two-part love story The 7.39, and he has also adapted his novel Us as a four part drama for BBC1, starring Tom Hollander and Saskia Reeves.

Such a beautiful book. Captures perfectly a moment in time we've all experienced. It's just perfect in every way. Funny, engaging and moving, another triumph from the brilliant David Nicholls. Astutely observed, and almost painfully nostalgic, SWEET SORROW reads like a true story. 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. He's such a genius. His novels are relatable and recognizable, but also surprising, breath-taking and life-enhancing No one else writes novels that are both relatable and revelatory in the way he does 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