Sweet Sorrow

The Long-Awaited New Novel from the Best-Selling Author of One Day

By: David Nicholls

Narrated by: Rory Kinnear

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

Now: On the verge of marriage and a fresh start, 38-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.

©2020 David Nicholls (P)2020 Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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

Thoroughly enjoyable!

Sweet, funny, believable... both the teen angst and the adult realizations. Loved it. I'm going to have to download his first book now!!

The story was wonderfully told, by the author and the reader.

Exceptionally well written and narrated. It was very moving. I enjoyed it very much. Thank you.

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.

The story of first love, touching and emotional.

I loved all David Nicholls books, One Day is still the best. Amazing writing, depth of characters.

A delight in every way!

When I’m in between authors, I tend to default to “who are my favorite readers?” While Rory Kinnear is an excellent actor, he is one of the finest readers of audiobooks I’ve had the pleasure of listening to. Listening to this book was like listening to what I can only describe as a multi-dimensional, one-man radio play.

I had never heard of this author before, but with the combination of Rory Kinnear being listed as this novel’s reader and an average rating above 4 stars, I felt like this would be a good option. I had no idea what I was getting myself into. To be surprised and delighted, with no preconceived notion of the storyline, is truly my favorite type of audiobook adventure, and this was one such experience.

I walk 50 miles a week and often passively listen to a variety of novels that are like comfort food. This novel had me walking down the street, sometimes doubled over with laughter. Between this author’s authenticity and wit, performed with Rory Kinnear’s perfect comedic timing and sarcastic pitch, I sometimes felt like I was watching a quirky, British Rom Com, rather than listening to an audiobooks while trudging mile after mile in hear of Central Phoenix.

I cannot recommend this novel enough. It’s funny, sweet, heartbreaking, poignant, warm, and nostalgic; a wonderful read!

Loved!

This book made me so happy, I didn’t want it to end. Such a perfect, funny, bittersweet, perfect story!