Sweet Sorrow by David Nicholls

Sweet Sorrow by David Nicholls is a beautiful coming-of-age story/ teenage love story (although it’s not a book written for teenagers). I bought it after my friend recommended it following my review of Nicholls’ most recent book – You Are Here. And I wasn’t disappointed.

In 1997, Charlie Lewis has just finished school. He’s pretty sure he has failed his exams. His friends spend their time drinking heavily, fighting and insulting each other. His parents have just split up and his dad has lost his job. Charlie hates spending time at home with his dad – half scared of losing him and half embarrassed at having a dad who sits at home doing nothing.

And then he unexpectedly meets Fran Fisher – richer, cooler and with a better education. Fran is spending her summer with a theatre group, rehearsing for Romeo and Juliet. Charlie wants to spend time with her, so he goes along to the theatre group. But he’s definitely not staying and he’s definitely not playing an actual part.

Slowly, Charlie comes to love his time with the theatre group. He makes friends with people who wouldn’t have dared socialise with before – people who would have been considered by his friends to be the worst things you could be – ‘posh’, ‘gay’ or both. Most of all, he falls in love with Fran.

Charlie and Fran spend as much time as they can together, while the rest of Charlie’s life carries on. His dad is still at home, his mum has a new partner, Charlie is working part-time in a petrol station and he’s avoiding his friends as much as possible.

The majority of the book is about that summer, with a whizz through the way adult life worked out for Charlie and some of his friends. Twenty years on, he’s about to get married. He hasn’t seen Fran for years, but he gets the chance to meet up with her again…

Romantic fiction isn’t really my thing, but I absolutely loved Sweet Sorrow. The intensity of the teenage relationships and friendships all felt very real. I could also relate to spending the summer with a theatre group, because that’s how I used to spend my teenage summers! I’m no Shakespeare expert, but it felt to me that the story cleverly wove in themes from Romeo and Juliet.

If you like a love story or a coming-of-age story, I would definitely recommend Sweet Sorrow.