Valentines: Stories Book + PRICE WATCH * Amazon pricing is not included in price watch

Valentines: Stories Book

This book is a small gem. The writing is crisp, clear and uncluttered--and so true and realistic one gets the feeling the characters are discovering their true selves even as they speak, so much so that sometimes the final words or actions of the final paragraphs of the stories seem to surprise the characters as much as they do us. I really liked that many of the stories have a nice little tweaks of O. Henry punches at the end. I think the first story, "January," with its melancholy mixture of regret and self-delusion, compares favorably to anything Ishiguro has done, and I'm still thinking of the cuckolded husband losing control (or maybe finally taking control) of his life and going ballistic at his wife's yard sale. The book is filled with flawed characters trying to do their best; that they rarely succeed and yet are still so sympathetic speaks volumes about the skill of the author. To put it another way: now that I'm done with this collection I'm planning to read all his other books. --Terry GoodmanRead More

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  • Product Description

    From the acclaimed Icelandic author of Absolution, The Journey Home (now about to start filming under Liv Ullmannâ??s direction) and Walking into the Night: a haunting collection of thematically linked stories that encompasses the twelve months of a year, capturing the most candid moments between lovers, husbands and wives, parents and childrenâ??when truths and true feelings surge to the surface and everything changes.

    Olaf Olafssonâ??s fans will recognize the perfect restraint and precisionâ??and quick witâ??with which he characteristically explores these dark epiphanies, when the heart is suddenly laid bare, whether by love or betrayal, disenchantment or regret, or the shock of loss. While their settings range from the East Coast to the West Coast, from Paris to Slovenia and Iceland, these contemporary stories probe the complexity of modern relationships over time. A wife realizes her closest confidante is much more than that. A father tries to make his new lover into the image of his late wife. A lusty photographer confronts his own mortality. A coupleâ??s long-anticipated anniversary vacation opens onto the past. A husband, a wife, a child, a boating accident: no harm done . . . and yet?

    Each of the twelve stories reveals another element in the agonizing nature of passion, diminished and yet sustained over time. This is a powerful work of fiction from one of our most gifted and subtle international writers at work today.

  • 0375424687
  • 9780375424687
  • Olaf Olafsson
  • 30 January 2007
  • Pantheon Books
  • Hardcover (Book)
  • 224
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