From Publishers Weekly
As melancholy, autumnal and finely calibrated as a Bergman film, this second novel by Grondahl (Silence in October) meticulously chronicles the separate past loves of a doctor and his patient, and their shared present detachment. Lucca Montale, an actress with a young son and a string of unhappy affairs behind her, rushes out of her house in the Danish countryside and drives head-on into a truck after her playwright husband, Andreas, tells her that he wants a divorce. At the hospital, she is eventually informed that she may never see again. Attempting to adjust to her new reality, Lucca becomes attached to Robert, her doctor, a divorced father living in a state of denial and resignation. The two manage to overcome not only the abysmal reality of Lucca's injury, but also their own bitter past experiences. Robert invites Lucca to stay with him while she recovers, and their chaste intimacy bears quiet fruit. Through a slow, deliberate accumulation of emotional, psychological and physical detail, Grondahl paints an achingly luminous and nuanced portrait of two characters alienated from those around them and from their own pasts. Lucca's experiences-glamorous trysts with a famous director, an actor and all sorts of men around Europe-are very different from Robert's lonely domesticity and long hours spent listening to classical music, but their stories are treated with equally sensuous attention, the more poignant because it is filtered through an awareness that "life lasted longer than your dreams." Beautifully translated by Born, this is a lovely minor-key effort.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
*Starred Review* Lyrical, profound, and beautifully written, Grondahl's latest book examines the nature of love and lust and how the quest for both impacts individual lives. The central character in this poignant story is Lucca, a promising young actress. Lucca's father deserted the family when Lucca was quite young, and in a classic case of seeking the love her father denied her, the adult Lucca becomes involved in numerous affairs, each one ending badly. Finally, she meets talented playwright Andreas Bark, marries him, and has his child. But after several years of marriage, Andreas tells Lucca he has met someone else, and in despair, she drives down the wrong side of the motorway and is hit head-on by a truck. The accident blinds her, and it is in the hospital where she is recovering that she meets Robert, a doctor still suffering after his recent divorce. As Robert oversees Lucca's care, he becomes involved not only in mending her body but in helping mend her shattered spirit. Grondahl, one of Denmark's most celebrated authors, has written a thoughtful, provocative, compelling, emotionally gripping story. An absolute must for every thinking reader.
Emily MeltonCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
