What an unexpectedly wonderful book! It is told in a series of letters back and forth between a British woman and a professor in Denmark. It becomes clear early on that they are both somewhat lonely, and they continue to exchange letters, building a strong friendship through this correspondence.

The correspondence felt completely natural; the correspondence began slowly and the connection between the two characters grows as they exchange letters with increasingly personal information, in a way that feels true to the way my friendships have always grown and developed.

Some of the less positive reviewers have complained that the letters seem to ramble a bit, or that they found them boring. Other reviewers have described the novel as slow-paced, and I think that is a better description. In one exchange between the two of them, they each describe their surroundings, describing their homes to each other. Although I can understand how some readers might find this exchange rambling, boring or irrelevant, to me the visual this created of the very different spaces that they inhabit was incredibly evocative of the differences between these two people.

This is one of those books where I hate the fact that I have finished it-I miss spending time with the two main characters. Maybe I can make a trip to Denmark to see the Tollund Man myself one day-after all the museum is open every day...

4.5 stars. This is a lovely, epistolary novel. It’s beautifully written, an exploration of the bitter and sweet in life. There isn’t a strong plot line, but that didn’t diminish my desire to keep reading, to keep getting to know the characters better through their letters. I’ll be thinking about Tina and Anders for a while, I can tell.

I'm not usually a fan of this style of book, which uses the correspondence between two people as the narrative. But I found this book to be thoughtful and highly engaging, because of the 1st person narration of each character, they each had an intimate depth, that was highly relatable. The observations made by each character were very mindful and made me feel compelled to take more time to share my own thoughts with others. And even though I saw the plot trigger well in advance, I liked the way the author managed this often cliched device with an interesting and atypical response from the main characters. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this book,

I really loved this book. It was interesting and beautifully written. I can't wait to read more from this author.

Thank you netgalley and publisher for providing me with a review copy in exchange for my honest and unbiased opinion of it.

At first I found this completely charming, but by the end, it was just annoying. I can't diagnose why.



Review copy provided by publisher.