It took a few years, but during the Brexit period, Nick Hornby decided to give the love story a chance.
In the novel Just Like You, Lucy, a 42-year-old white divorced middle-class woman, and Joseph, a black 22-year-old working-class man, meet in a butcher shop where Joseph works.
He starts babysitting for Lucy's children, and in the middle of the Brexit vote, they begin a love affair.
- During Brexit, it seemed that one half of England would never talk to the other half again.
The obstacles that this couple in the book face were perhaps part of what led to Brexit in some way, says Nick Hornby.
Age difference becomes comedy
Brexit, racism and class are some of the things addressed in the book.
These are topics that also pose some problems in Joseph and Lucy's relationship, but their biggest problem is something else.
- I think the most difficult problem for any couple to overcome is to belong to different generations.
Not having the same kind of life experiences.
The age gap becomes comical in some cases, such as when Lucy starts dancing to one of Joseph's songs.
The dance is Lucy's way of showing appreciation, but for Joseph it is a reminder that she is the same age as his own mother.
One problem that cannot be laughed off is the biological part, says Hornby.
- It feels like Joseph would be a good father, but there is no possibility that he could have children with Lucy.
Trying to break the dystopian trend
In some ways, the novel is about unhappy or even impossible love, but that is not entirely true.
For Nick Hornby, Just Like You is an attempt to break the trend with dystopian stories about the world situation.
- You do not have to write something that offers the reader an escape from everything, but I think you can write about world problems in a way that makes readers not give up hope, says the author.
In the clip above, you can hear Nick Hornby about what made him write the book. See the entire author interview in Babel on Sunday at 20:00.