Barcelona Days
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- ¥2,200
発行者による作品情報
In this captivating novel, an erupting Icelandic volcano grounds all flights in and out of Europe, forcing four vacationing Americans to reckon with the problems they'd hoped to leave behind in Barcelona.
Whitney and Will are a perfect couple by all appearances, their relationship rock-solid, and their engagement soon to be announced. Before their impending nuptials, however, Whitney suggests a lighthearted experiment: why not give each other three romantic "free passes" before getting married? Three opportunities to imagine other lives before returning with new appreciation for each other. On what's meant to be the last night of a romantic Barcelona vacation, they agree to regale one another with details of these harmless trysts. They grin and bear it, and fall asleep feeling mostly satisfied, and relieved to be firmly together again.
But then a volcano erupts overnight, spewing a cloud of ash across Europe and grounding all flights indefinitely. Trapped in Barcelona, their paths intertwine with a star basketball player, his future dashed by a crippling injury, and a foreign exchange student with a double life, about to return home and face reality.
Whitney and Will flirt, provoke, dance, and drink. Over the next three days, they will use and be used by their new friends, once again testing the boundaries of their relationship -- but this time, can it survive?
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A volcano grounds a pair of 29-year-old New Yorkers at the end of their 2017 Barcelona vacation in Riley's emotionally grinding latest (after Fly Me). Whitney, a rising television producer, suggests that she and her fianc , Will, each sow their wild oats over the two months she'll spend working in L.A., before their planned trip to Barcelona. They agree to three sexual encounters with strangers, and in Barcelona, they disclose the details of their hookups in light-hearted banter. The next morning, an ash cloud from Iceland indefinitely postpones their return flight, and the fallout of their experiment begins to strain the relationship. At a party, they bump into Jack Pickle, the star of their alma mater's basketball team, and Jenna Leonard, a quirky college student from Southern California. Then Will and Jenna attend a concert together, ramping up Whitney's jealousy as she goes back to Jack's apartment. The next morning, both accuse the other of cheating, and their argument upends the already fractured relationship. While Riley's cool, sensuous prose evokes the "promise of being trapped in the city forever," pages of acrimony between Will and Whitney and a lurid backstory involving Jenna throttle the tale's momentum. There are better stories of love on the rocks.
