You Are Here

 

You Are Here by David Nicholls

Fiction

2024

Narrated by Lee Ingleby and Lydia Leonard

Finished on January 23, 2026

Rating: 4/5 (Very Good)

Publisher's Blurb:

Sometimes you need to get lost to find your way . . .

Michael is coming undone. Adrift after his wife's departure, he has begun taking himself on long, solitary walks across the English countryside. Becoming ever more reclusive, he’ll do anything to avoid his empty house.

Marnie, on the other hand, is stuck. Hiding alone in her London flat, she avoids old friends and any reminders of her rotten, selfish ex-husband. Curled up with a good book, she’s battling the long afternoons of a life that feels like it’s passing her by.

When a persistent mutual friend and some very unpredictable weather conspire to toss Michael and Marnie together on the most epic of ten-day hikes, neither of them can think of anything worse. Until, of course, they discover exactly what they’ve been looking for.

Michael and Marnie are on the precipice of a bright future . . . if they can survive the journey.

I love a good romantic comedy. I can't tell you how many times I've watched You've Got Mail, When Harry Met Sally, or French Kiss, but when it comes to reading this genre, I'm hard pressed to think of any favorites. The Wedding People is one that I enjoyed a couple of years ago, but I lean more toward literary fiction (or mysteries and thrillers). You Are Here came along at just the right time. I've not read David Nicholls' previous novels, but after seeing a few glowing reviews for his most recent release, I decided to give it a try on audio. I'm glad I chose that format, especially since most of my listening time was during my afternoon walks. I felt as if I was walking along side Marnie and Michael, eavesdropping on their conversations and bantering. Lydia Leonard's narration for Marnie is fantastic, reminding me of Emma Thompson's dry sense of humor.

The bar was suddenly busy with what’s called ‘an older crowd’, hunched male backs in olive green, and she felt absurdly overdressed in her small black dress, Audrey Hepburn addressing the National Farmers Union.

On Copy-editing:

“Proofreading is “You misspelled ‘instantaneously’," copy-editing is “Why not say ‘instantly’?”

and

A common mistake in manuscripts was confusion over the words ‘envy’ and ‘jealousy’, the first meaning to want what someone else has, the second including the fear that someone might take what’s yours.

On Reading: 

Books saw her through the pupal stage of thirteen to sixteen, frowning at Kafka and Woolf, then tearing through John Irving and Maeve Binchy, widely read in the proper sense, making no distinction between Jilly Cooper and Edith Wharton. There were stories on film and TV and, a little later, in the rolling melodrama of the internet, but those were team activities, noisy and social. Private, intimate, a book was something she could pull around and over herself, like a quilt.

If you're seeking a quiet, gentle read that makes you laugh out loud, give You Are Here a try. In these difficult days, it was a balm to my soul. I'd love to go walking in the English countryside right about now. Who wants to join me?