Silence In October

After eighteen years of marriage, an art historian wakes up one morning to find his wife standing in the bedroom doorway with her bags packed, leaving him with no explanation. Alone in his Copenhagen apartment, he tries to make sense of his enigmatic marriage and life. Memories of driving a cab, quiet walks in the snow, and intense sojourns in Paris and New York pass through his mind in fleeting, highly visual images. The more he thinks of his wife, however, the more mysterious she becomes to him. Slowly he realizes that two people can live together for years without ever really knowing each other, and that the most important encounters in one's life are dictated by chance, not design. Exploring with great subtlety the secret, unpredictable connections between men and women, Silence in October is a psychological novel of immense acuity and masterful storytelling. It heralds the arrival of a major talent in this country.

Silence in October

Literature & Fiction

Grøndahl, Jens Christian

Born, Anne

Literary

Houghton, mifflin, harcourt

On a lovely evening in April, Lucca Montale is rushed to the hospital after the car she was driving collided head-on with a truck. Robert, her doctor, has to break the news that she may never see again. Lucca is an actress with a string of love affairs behind her, now unhappily married with a son. Since his divorce, Robert has lived in a state of emotional paralysis and resignation, relieved only by the weekend visits of his young daughter. During their daily conversations he and Lucca share their life stories, and slowly they are drawn to one another, on terms new to both. The result is a love story of immense emotional reach that will enhance Jens Christian Grándahl's reputation as one of the most readable and perceptive novelists writing today.

Lucca

Contemporary

Irene Beckman appears to have a perfect life: two grown children, a house in a prosperous suburb of Copenhagen, and a successful career as a family lawyer. She is cool, sophisticated, and still exotically good-looking, the dyed hair her only concession to time. Then her husband announces that he's leaving her, and her mother reveals some unexpected information about Irene's father. Suddenly, Irene Beckman is neither wife nor daughter. Nor, she realizes, is it at all clear who she has been all these years. It is time to find out. From the internationally acclaimed author of Silence in October, An Altered Light is another fascinating exploration of the nature of chance and relationships-between parents and children, husbands and wives, friends and strangers.

An Altered Light

After eighteen years of marriage, an art historian wakes up one morning to find his wife standing in the bedroom doorway with her bags packed, leaving him with no explanation. Alone in his Copenhagen apartment, he tries to make sense of his enigmatic marriage and life. Memories of driving a cab, quiet walks in the snow, and intense sojourns in Paris and New York pass through his mind in fleeting images. The more he thinks of his wife, however, the more mysterious she becomes to him. Slowly he realizes that two people can live together for years without ever really knowing each other, and that the most important encounters in one's life are dictated by chance, not design. Exploring with great subtlety the secret, unpredictable connections between men and women, Silence in October is a psychological novel of immense acuity and masterful storytelling.

United States

HarperVia

Romance

Mariner Books

After 18 years of marriage, the narrator's wife has left home. In the silence of his Copenhagen apartment or on his travels, he recalls not just their lives together - their first meeting, children, friends - but re-evaluates himself both personally and professionally.

Genre Fiction

Canongate Books Ltd.

Often I Am Happy: A Novel

This elegant and nuanced literary gem explores the intricacies of friendship, secrets, and two marriages, for fans of The Dinner and Dept. of Speculation. "Often I am happy and yet I want to cry; / For no heart fully shares my joy." -B.S. Ingemann Ellinor is seventy. Her husband Georg has just passed away, and she is struck with the need to confide in someone. She addresses Anna, her long-dead best friend, who was also Georg's first wife. Fully aware of the absurdity of speaking to someone who cannot hear her, Ellinor nevertheless finds it meaningful to divulge long-held secrets and burdens of her past: her mother's heartbreaking pride; Ellinor's courtship with her first husband; their seemingly charmed friendship with Anna and Georg; the disastrous ski trip that shattered the two couples' lives. Wry and mellow yet infused with subdued emotion, this philosophical, lyrical novel moves in parallel narrative threads while questioning the assumptions we cherish concerning identity and love.

Twelve

This elegant and nuanced literary gem explores the intricacies of friendship, secrets, and two marriages, for fans of The Dinner and Dept. of Speculation. "Often I am happy and yet I want to cry; / For no heart fully shares my joy." -B.S. Ingemann Ellinor is seventy. Her husband Georg has just passed away, and she is struck with the need to confide in someone. She addresses Anna, her long-dead best friend, who was also Georg's first wife. Fully aware of the absurdity of speaking to someone who cannot hear her, Ellinor nevertheless finds it meaningful to divulge long-held secrets and burdens of her past: her mother's heartbreaking pride; Ellinor's courtship with her first husband; their seemingly charmed friendship with Anna and Georg; the disastrous ski trip that shattered the two couples' lives. Wry and mellow yet infused with subdued emotion, this philosophical, lyrical novel moves in parallel narrative threads while questioning the assumptions we cherish concerning identity and love.

This elegant and nuanced literary gem explores the intricacies of friendship, secrets, and two marriages, for fans of The Dinner and Dept. of Speculation.  "Often I am happy and yet I want to cry; / For no heart fully shares my joy." -B.S. IngemannEllinor is seventy. Her husband Georg has just passed away, and she is struck with the need to confide in someone. She addresses Anna, her long-dead best friend, who was also Georg's first wife. Fully aware of the absurdity of speaking to someone who cannot hear her, Ellinor nevertheless finds it meaningful to divulge long-held secrets and burdens of her past: her mother's heartbreaking pride; Ellinor's courtship with her first husband; their seemingly charmed friendship with Anna and Georg; the disastrous ski trip that shattered the two couples' lives. Wry and mellow yet infused with subdued emotion, this philosophical, lyrical novel moves in parallel narrative threads while questioning the assumptions we cherish concerning identity and love.

Often I Am Happy: Jens Christian Grondahl

Picador

After 18 years of marriage Astrid, the wife of the novel's narrator, has left home. Her departure leaves her art-historian husband feeling loss and loneliness that force him to reassess his life: not only his relationship with Astrid, but with their children, friends, his previous lovers, his work and perhaps most significantly himself. Moment by moment, in the silence of their Copenhagen apartment, the puzzle of his life takes shape. Gr�ndahl explores with great subtlety the secret, unpredictable connections between men and women.

CANONGATE BOOKS *

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Grøndahl, Jens Christian. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Grøndahl, Jens Christian

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Grøndahl, Jens Christian. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Silence in October

Lucca

An Altered Light

Silence In October

Lucca

Silence in October

Often I Am Happy: A Novel

Often I Am Happy: A Novel

Often I Am Happy: Jens Christian Grondahl

Silence In October