The following version of this book was used to create the guide: Nicholls, David. Sweet Sorrow. Mariner Books, 2020.

Sweet Sorrow, David Nicholl’s fifth novel, opens on 16-year-old Charlie Lewis just after his final year of high school. Charlie’s perspective is mostly given through narration focused on this point in his life, but glimpses of events from earlier years, as well as older Charlie 20 years down the line, are also frequent. The story is not told in a linear fashion, but the main plot follows Charlie into the first summer after his high school career has ended. Peeks into Charlie’s past are provided at the very beginning of the story. He belittles his own self-worth and dismisses a teacher who aims to mollify the severity of failing his GCSE exams (9).

It is quickly revealed that Charlie does not live with his mother or sister anymore. Mere months before the end of the school year, his mother left their new, smaller home, took Billie, and moved in with her new boyfriend. Charlie recalls his mother’s behavior upon being forced to move to a bizarre, little property: “She had always possessed the ability to laugh at adversity, huddling in a tent on windswept Exmoor or waiting for a car mechanic on the hard shoulder of a motorway, but now that gift was failing her” (49). The reader pieces together that his mom left after years of dealing with his father’s poor organizational and managerial skills. The record store trio the family inherited quickly turned into a money sinkhole, and his father’s deceitful actions left them bankrupt (47). Now, Charlie lives alone with his depressed, jobless father, essentially acting as his caretaker.

Charlie has three best friends from school, Harper, Lloyd, and Fox, but he has always considered Harper to be his one true best friend. Although there should be ample time to spend together in their final summer before some of them leave for college, Charlie is distant. Greatly affected by his performance in school and his bleak home life, he spends the first weeks of summer biking around town, exploring areas that he has never seen before. He also develops a strange, great love for reading. While reading in a new spot next to an old mansion on a hill, he falls asleep, and when he awakes, he sees a beautiful girl named Fran running down the hill (23-24). The two immediately take a liking to one another, and Fran takes Charlie to meet the theater troupe she is with. The group is using the mansion as their rehearsal and performance space for that summer’s Full Fathom Five Theatre Company’s production of Romeo and Juliet.

In order to get closer to Fran, Charlie agrees to participate in the rehearsals for a week, but soon he gets pulled in for the full run. He is originally given the role of Sampson, but when the actor playing Benvolio backs out, Charlie is asked to step up (125). He is shocked that Ivor and Alina, the Company directors, have cast him so well. He thinks that Benvolio is, “A sidekick, and conformist and observer” (136). Although acting is not his strong suit, Charlie does become closer to Fran. The two walk down the hill to the main road together every day, but eventually their relationship becomes romantic. A couple of weeks before the play’s debut, Fran and Charlie consummate their relationship (293-295).

Charlie works part-time at the petrol station for some cash. Bored and poor, he begins stealing scratch cards for the cash prizes (98-99). He makes excuses, telling himself, and later his parents when he is caught, that no money existed for the customers unless the cards were handed out. His scheme is caught the night after he loses his virginity to Fran, and the two have another special night planned that is destroyed by his thievery (317). Charlie is humiliated by his actions, and it does not help his relationship with Fran.

Although Fran and Charlie have a passionate, serious relationship, they only date for five months. Just as Romeo and Juliet had a brief, desirous love, the couple’s affection burns brightly but dims quickly. The most detrimental factor affecting their relationship is Charlie’s lack of motivation and a plan for the future. Fran is open, active, and excited for what lies ahead, but Charlie wallows in self-pity and the excuse of looking after his depressed father. Although Charlie truly does love his dad and wants to do what is best, staying behind while all of his friends leave for college is injurious to his future. Charlie maintains good relations with Alex and Helen, two of the play’s actors, despite the end of his relationship with Fran.

Charlie is eventually persuaded to leave town, retake his failed exams, and apply to colleges. His guardian angel comes in the form of Helen and Alex, two pushy friends who force him to do something with his future. Charlie acknowledges the gigantic impact that these friends make on his life, stating, “...it occurs to me that the good luck we have in school, in our work, is nothing compared to the great good luck of friendship” (382).

Because of this new path in life, Charlie is able to meet Niamh, a woman with whom he maintains a 10-year relationship and later becomes his fiancée. Niamh is sarcastic, witty, understanding, and encouraging regarding Charlie’s past. She is never jealous of his relationship with Fran and even wants to meet her. After attending Full Fathom Five reunion with Helen in which he reconnected with Fran, Charlie is eager to return home to Niamh and looks forward to marrying her in the upcoming weeks (405).