The American Lover
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4.0 • 2 Ratings
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- $10.99
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
“A collection of stylish daring, tonal mastery and smart, tough love.”—New York Times Book Review
Trapped in a London apartment, Beth remembers a transgressive love affair in 1960s Paris. The most famous writer in Russia takes his last breath in a stationmaster’s cottage, miles from Moscow. A young woman who is about to marry a rich aristocrat instead begins a torrid relationship with a construction worker. A father, finally free of his daughter’s demands, embarks on a long swim from his Canadian lakeside retreat. A middle-aged woman cares for her injured mother at Christmas. And in the grandest house of all, Danni the Polish housekeeper catches the eye of an enigmatic visitor, Daphne du Maurier.
Rose Tremain awakens the senses in this magnificent and diverse collection of short stories. In her precise yet sensuous style, she lays bare the soul of her characters—the admirable, the embarrassing, the unfulfilled, the sexy, and the adorable—to uncover a dazzling range of human emotions and desires.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In the title story, which kicks off this collection from Tremain (Man Booker Prize shortlisted for Restoration), Beth, a British author nearing 30, has recently been in a car accident that broke both her legs. Recuperating at her parents' apartment, Beth takes to waiting for Rosalita, the housekeeper, who comes by every afternoon and listens to the story of Beth's life, while dusting and sharing some stories of her own. In Paris at age 19, Beth was seduced by an older, aloof American who left her bereft after his sudden departure. Beth then depicted their relationship in what became a global sensation of a novel, which made her rich but no less forlorn. "The Housekeeper" features a former servant in a grand English estate recounting the betrayal of a lover. In "Extra Geography," two high school girls, both field hockey players, set their sights on a young female teacher. The breadth of subjects and settings is matched by Tremain's exquisite prose. Readers might just want to take a break between stories, to savor the language and the images.
