One Day in December
Josie Silver, 2018
A decade of near-misses and December chances, told through two people who meet at a bus window and cannot quite forget each other. A warm, yearning story that moves across years, with a lyrical voice and a steady ache of hope and melancholy.
Feels like longing, hope and melancholy. About love, time and memory.
Who it’s for
You may like it if you enjoy romance built from timing, missed chances and long-held longing rather than a single neat courtship. The decade of near-misses can feel drawn out if you want the pair to resolve things quickly.
Why read it
It gives you the pull of a chance encounter and the slow work of carrying it through ordinary years, with December as a recurring light.
A page from the book
What you do when the chance is pulling away without you.
No! No! Oh God, don’t you dare drive away from this stop! It’s Christmas! I want to yell, even as the bus pulls out into the traffic and gathers pace, and outside he is breathless standing in the road, watching us leave. I see defeat turn out the light in his eyes, and because it’s Christmas and because I’ve just fallen hopelessly in love with a stranger at a bus stop, I blow him a forlorn kiss and lay my forehead against the glass, watching him until he’s out of sight. Josie Silver.Josie Silver wrote One Day in December as her debut; it became a word-of-mouth bestseller and a Reese's Book Club pick.
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Questions readers ask
- Is One Day in December for me?
- You may like it if you enjoy romance built from timing, missed chances and long-held longing rather than a single neat courtship. The decade of near-misses can feel drawn out if you want the pair to resolve things quickly.
- What is One Day in December like?
- A warm, yearning story that moves across years, with a lyrical voice and a steady ache of hope and melancholy. Feels like longing, hope and melancholy. About love, time and memory.
- What should I read after One Day in December?
- If you liked One Day in December, try The Midnight Library (Matt Haig), Love and Other Words (Christina Lauren) and Dear John (Nicholas Sparks).
A taste of the feed
The gap between a mother's corrections and a stranger's kindness.
It was hard not to compare Mrs Elm to her mother, who treated Nora like a mistake in need of correction. For instance, when she was a baby her mother had been so worried Nora’s left ear stuck out more than her right that she’d used sticky tape to address the situation, then disguised it beneath a woollen bonnet.
The Midnight Library · Matt Haig
What it sounds like to wait eleven years without making it an accusation.
I’ve been waiting for you to come home for eleven years. I’ll go anywhere you go.
Love and Other Words · Christina Lauren
Some love stories are made mostly of the time in between.
I fell in love with her when we were together, then fell deeper in love with her in the years we were apart. Our story has three parts: a beginning, a middle, and an end. And although this is the way all stories unfold, I still can’t believe that ours didn’t go on forever.
Dear John · Nicholas Sparks
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