When Marnie and Michael are first thrown together during a hiking trip in the Lake District, sparks do not fly. Michael, a cagoule-clad geography teacher from York, is walking Alfred Wainwright’s famous coast-to-coast route and, at the behest of his friend, Cleo, has agreed to a gang of people joining him for the first leg. A reserved, earnest sort who only seems to come alive when discussing rock formations, Michael is newly separated from his wife, their relationship having faltered following struggles with infertility.
Meanwhile, Cleo’s best friend, Marnie, a copy editor from London, is six years divorced, feeling isolated since her married friends moved out of the city to have children, and has all but resigned herself to staying single. This is despite Cleo nudging her towards the handsome but dim pharmacist Conrad, who turns up for the hike in jeans and trainers.
The sixth book from the One Day author David Nicholls, You Are Here is built around the alternating viewpoints of Michael and Marnie, who find themselves walking alone together as, one by one, the others flake out. It’s a structure that lends itself nicely to a dual narration: Gentleman Jack’s Lydia Leonard crackles as the witty, self-effacing Marnie while Lee Ingleby moves between wariness and affability as Michael. More than just a love story set amid the provincial hotels and rain-soaked vistas of rural Britain, this gentle comic tale is about lonely souls, second chances, and the weariness and wisdom of middle age.
• Available via WF Howes, 8hr 27min
Further listening
The Covenant of Water
Abraham Verghese, Recorded Books, 31hr 16min
The Cutting for Stone author narrates his epic tale spanning three generations of an Indian family as they navigate one catastrophe after another.
Never
Rick Astley, Macmillan, 7hr 42min
The Never Gonna Give You Up hitmaker’s memoir details his dysfunctional childhood, teen stardom followed by a slide into obscurity – plus the rise of Rickrolling. Read by the author.
