Sweet Sorrow

The long-awaited new novel from the best-selling author of ONE DAY

By: David Nicholls

Narrated by: Rory Kinnear

“A tale of first love that hits all the right notes . . . [it] just might be the sweetest book to brighten your late summer.” —The Washington Post

""Dazzles with wit.”—People

From the bestselling author of One Day comes a bittersweet and brilliantly funny coming-of-age tale about the heart-stopping thrill of first love—and how one summer can forever change a life.

Now: On the verge of marriage and a fresh start, thirty-eight year old Charlie Lewis finds that he can’t stop thinking about the past, and the events of one particular summer.

Then: Sixteen-year-old Charlie Lewis is the kind of boy you don’t remember in the school photograph. He’s failing his classes. At home he looks after his depressed 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.

But when Fran Fisher bursts into his life and despite himself, Charlie begins to hope.

In order to spend time with Fran, Charlie 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, Romeo and Juliet learned and performed in a theater troupe over the course of a summer.

Now: Charlie can’t go the altar without coming to terms with his relationship with Fran, his friends, and his former self. 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.

Heartwarming

Loved loved loved this book- the performance was perfection and the story so nostalgic and heartwarming! Exactly the kind of book I’ve been needing.

I loved this book

This book was incredibly touching. The performance was delightful. I didn’t expect to enjoy this book but I loved it.

Great narration!

The story was fine, but the narration of the book with all the inflections, and pauses in the right spot made it perfect!! Really enjoyed listening!

Loved characters and narrator!

The narrator was TERRIFIC. And another gem from this author, who has a knack for writing funny complex female characters — which always stands out in male authors

My second Nicholls book

I bought this book after reading and loving "Us" by David Nicholls. "Sweet Sorrow" has a very different tone than the latter (not as funny and humorous while also not as sad) but it reveals the same authorial talent, excellent command of the language, and a gift for telling simple, everyday stories in a fresh, interesting, engaging way.
The reader, Rory Kinnear, is of course brilliant... BUT his choppy way of enunciating gets old very quickly and ends up being dreadfully tiresome.
I would highly recommend this book.