One Plus One was published by Michael Joseph (Penguin) in 2014, following the massive success of Me Before You and consolidating Moyes’s position as one of the UK’s bestselling novelists. The novel is lighter than its predecessor — a romantic comedy rather than a tragedy — but shares its interest in class difference and the assumptions people make about each other based on economic circumstance.
Jess Thomas is a single mother holding down two cleaning jobs to support her children: Tanzie (a mathematical prodigy who has won a place at a competition in Scotland but whose bus fare Jess cannot afford) and Nicky (a bullied stepson who retreats into his blog). Ed Nicholls is a tech entrepreneur facing an insider trading investigation, hiding out in a coastal cottage where Jess happens to clean. When Jess’s ancient car breaks down, Ed impulsively offers them a ride — and a road trip begins that nobody planned.
The class dynamics are handled with characteristic directness: Ed has never thought about money because he has always had it; Jess thinks about nothing else because she never has enough. Their mutual incomprehension is initially comic (Ed doesn’t understand that a £20 lunch is two days’ food budget for Jess) and gradually becomes revelatory — each forced to see the world through the other’s economic reality.
The road-trip structure provides Moyes’s characteristic blend of comedy (breakdowns, wrong turns, disastrous motels) and emotional revelation (confessions forced by proximity, intimacy created by shared adversity).
Collecting One Plus One
First edition (Michael Joseph / Penguin, London, 2014): Cloth binding, dust jacket.
Market values:
- First UK edition in dust jacket: $10–$20
- Signed first edition: $25–$50