Seven long short stories from the author of the acclaimed novel The
Reader continue to explore the relationship between love and guilt,
love and eroticism, love and betrayal. In one story the
relationship is between a Western writer and a couple in East
Berlin at the time of the fall of the Wall, overshadowed by a
tangle of remorse and regret for the double dealing which in the
end makes a loving relationship impossible. In another, the problem
is one of inter-racial love - while love between a Jew and a
non-Jew seems at first not only possible but transcendent, in the
end motives prove mixed, what is important is obscure and
confusing. Then there is an examination of failed love between a
father and son, suddenly illuminated in a flash of violence at the
moment of death. These seven stories are, certainly, about love -
but more than love: they speak more strongly of betrayal and guilt
as an inevitable part of almost every intimate relationship, and
are for the most part dark and pessimistic. The last story, and the
book, end with a man walking alone on an empty beach beside a gray
sea, under a gray sky. He is not deserted: he is the deserter. We
are all, Schlink seems to say in this remarkable book, deserters
who for one reason or another betray ourselves and our lovers. This
collection confirms the fact that he is one of the most impressive
writers of his generation. But he is no comforter. Not, perhaps, so
much Flights of Love as Flights from Love. (Kirkus UK)
'Perfectly crafted, intricate and haunting stories' from the
bestselling author of THE READER. A mesmeric collection of stories
about love. In his characteristically unsentimental, elegant and
spare prose, Schlink unveils characters and relationships haunted
by betrayal and guilt, in situations where self-examination is
inescapable. FLIGHTS OF LOVE consists of seven stories, all of them
weaving around the idea of love - why people are drawn to it and
why some run away. Schlink shows us in turn love as desire, love as
confusion, love as a quick affair, love as a drastic life-changing
rebellion, love as a force of habit, love as self-betrayal. The
cumulative effect is a book which uses effortlessly beguiling
language to examine the universal human desire to find a lasting
loving relationship, however thwarted that desire ultimately is.
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