Due to a sudden, unexpected passing in the family a few years ago and another more recently and my subsequent (mental) health issues stemming from that, I was unable to download this book in time to review it before it was archived as I did not visit this site for several years after the bereavements. This meant I didn't read or venture onto netgalley for years as not only did it remind me of that person as they shared my passion for reading, but I also struggled to maintain interest in anything due to overwhelming depression. I was therefore unable to download this title in time and so I couldn't give a review as it wasn't successfully acquired before it was archived. The second issue that has happened with some of my other books is that I had them downloaded to one particular device and said device is now defunct, so I have no access to those books anymore, sadly.

This means I can't leave an accurate reflection of my feelings towards the book as I am unable to read it now and so I am leaving a message of explanation instead. I am now back to reading and reviewing full time as once considerable time had passed I have found that books have been helping me significantly in terms of my mindset and mental health - this was after having no interest in anything for quite a number of years after the passings. Anything requested and approved will be read and a review written and posted to Amazon (where I am a Hall of Famer & Top Reviewer), Goodreads (where I have several thousand friends and the same amount who follow my reviews) and Waterstones (or Barnes & Noble if the publisher is American based). Thank you for the opportunity and apologies for the inconvenience

I couldn't get into this book as I was not drawn into the plot and I did not find the characters interesting. I have not managed to finish it and therefore can't recommend it.

What a heartrending and tragic tale this is. Beautifully written, quiet and understated, insightful and humane. It’s the story of highly regarded diplomat Edvard Behrens whose skills as a negotiator in peace negotiations are respected by all. We meet him trying to reconcile the warring sides in an unnamed conflict, and it’s a marvellous description of how these negotiations are carried out, with all the absurdities that all too often make conflict resolution so difficult. Behrens works very much alone as he must at all times remain neutral, but in an inner monologue he communicates with his beloved wife Anna. Gradually, and with expert pacing, we learn that not all is right with this relationship and the gradual reveal is tragic and deeply moving. Peace in all its varied meanings is at the heart of this wonderful book, love and loss and loneliness too, and as Behrens devotes himself to the latest round of negotiations the reader’s heart breaks for him. A small masterpiece, which I very much enjoyed.

Isolated in a resort high in the Austrian Tyrol, diplomat Edvard is overseeing a negotiation between two opposing sides in an unnamed conflict. As their petty disputes unfold, Edvard reflects in an inner monologue to his wife Anna. Anna is the true love of his life and anecdotes of their life together pepper the memories. However, something is wrong, Anna is no longer with Edvard and he mourns her loss greatly. She is a victim of the ongoing war between fundamental factions, the war that never seems to move forward and a war Edvard cannot help.
This is such a sad book. Firstly as Edvard muses on the nature of his work and how there are always conflicts. Then, as the book progresses, the reader learns the truth about Edvard’s life and his curtailed marriage. Finally the sad nature of Edvard’s life in the here and now, belonging nowhere and borderline alcoholic. Yet all the way through the reader is delighted by the empathetic writing and the lyrical way with description. A really fabulous book.

This is an exceptional novel. Endlessly clever, beautiful, harrowing, and often hilarious. One of the most satisfying things I've read in years.

A series of international peace talks (between an unnamed regime and the insurgents who tried to topple it) provides the backdrop against which the narrator, a distinguished British-Norwegian diplomat called Edvard Behrens, explores the intricacies of his own marriage. The talks themselves are fascinating and it feels like Tim Finch is drawing on personal experience of this arena. It also a provides a nice touch of intrigue to the personal storyline (in the end, what is the political, but personal?) in the early pages. For quite *why* Edvard is writing so movingly to his wife isn't initially clear. We sense a breakdown in communication, and feel his anguish and loss, but whose fault is it? His own? Hers? A third party? And what, if anything, can be done to bridge the distance, achieve some sort of reconciliation between them?

Like any couple who have spent decades together, Edvard and Anna have created a bubble of us-ness from memories ranging from the mundane to the tragic and life-changing. I cannot think of a more beautifully evoked account of the inner workings of a long intimacy. I was utterly seduced by Edvard and his enormous capacity for love and, initially at least, envious of Anna that she should be the object of something so all-consumingly and devastatingly unbreakable.

The prose is exquisite, the characterisation impeccable and by the time I'd reached 20% of the digital copy I was sent to review, I had already pre-ordered a paper copy. There is such passion for language, so many beguiling phrases and perfect sentences on every page; this is a book I will return to again and again.

At one point, Edvard tries turning on the radio in the lonely waking darkness of his hotel room, hoping the dulcet tones of the World Service reporting on car bombings and assassinations in Lahore will help him drift back off to sleep. Having reached for this same absurd solution myself at times it suddenly hit me that I should get hold of an Audible version of Edvard himself I could turn to instead. Sadly, PEACE TALKS isn't appearing yet in their catalogue. Hopefully soon?

I am sure PEACE TALKS will feature on all the finest prize lists this year. I hope it wins.

With many thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for letting me see an advance copy of this title in exchange for an unbiased review.

There are two series of peace talks in this novel. The first, more obvious and to me more interesting, is between the regime and the opposition of an unnamed Middle Eastern country (Syria?) in the throes of civil war. The protagonist is an established Norwegian mediator, playing the role that his compatriots Mona Juul and Terje Larsen did during the Oslo Accords. He is keenly aware of the smoke and mirrors of peace talks, and treats them with the good-humoured patience one might exercise towards an elderly relative. His observations on these, such as on an instance during which the opposition requests for the blinds to be drawn as a ploy to prolong the amount of time that the regime’s delegates have to stare at a picture of atrocities committed by its troops, are the highlights of this brief novel. Yet these peace talks are abruptly dropped midway through and then quickly wrapped up at the end in favour of the other series of peace talks. The novel is revealed to be the mediator’s musings to his brutally murdered wife, who was beheaded by a British former-Muslim convert to the anti-immigrant far right. These then are his peace talks, as he struggles with his grief and her ever-presence in his consciousness. Whilst sometimes touching, this detracted from the more interesting part of the novel and often served as a platter for self-indulgent, slightly irrelevant musings on everything and anything.

This was a beautiful, heart-wrenching but warm story about coping with tragic loss and learning to live with loneliness. The narrative is a long inner monologue in the first-person, from a peace negotiator who is talking to his wife.
He tells her of his day-to-day routine of inching towards a resolution - "like a traffic jam, sitting for ages and then moving a bit in the right direction" - in an unspecified negotiation between two warring factions in a Muslim country. As the petty squabbles over blinds being up or down, orange or apple juice and Turkish Delight being shared are related, he gradually reveals the terrible tragedy in his life and the story begins to become more about his personal struggle.
There are intelligent discussions on blame and finding a reason for the tragedy. It is easy for everyone to put forward a scenario that fits their world view and interpretation. Just as it is with large scale civil wars, invasions and acts of terror.
The inner monologue - his own peace talks - help the narrator overcome his grief and anger, but not without some downsides. You are left with the feeling that he is just going to stoically endure the rest of his life on his own but is feeling at home in that skin.

I had high hopes for this novel. The inside story of a leading peace negotiator Edvard Behrens holed up high in the Tyrol mountains trying to knock some heads together between two warring factions.
It started well outlining the process, his role and how in breaks for walks (or even for breakfast) the dynamics change and are challenged. It seemed obvious the character Dr Noor introduced early would impact the plot heavily and I tried to imagine similar scenarios such as the Good Friday Peace Agreement or many Middle East peace talks.
The author is a journalist with a great knowledge and has done his research well. But I just couldn't engage with the novel as the narrator Edvard kept it far too one dimensional. I love my politics and wanted more about the 'people' not just as asides. The 'conversations' with ex partners were placed and strained and although I felt Edvard's internal and personal pain it didn't wholly translate within the dynamics of the story. The desciptions of the location were excellent and maybe more descriptions of the parts of the world where he was engaging with would have added to the story?Sorry you know your stuff and as a factual journalist and working at IPPR will do intensive written pieces. But as a novel to capture the reader this could have gone far better.

'This is the life, though. The good life. I have had such a good life, haven't I? I am so lucky. We were so lucky, weren't we? So happy. Life is so short. But at the same time, it goes on so, so long.'

In a mountain-top hotel, diplomat and negotiator Edvard Behrens tries to bring two unnamed sides together to end a civil war and come up with a peace deal. The novel is addressed to a third-person, a 'you', and as it progresses we learn that Behrens is having a 'conversation' with his late wife, Anna Dupont. The circumstances of her death two years before are only revealed at the midpoint of the book, and add a certain poignancy to Edvard's work. As a character, he slowly emerges as a slightly pompous, even ridiculous, figure; half-Norwegian, British privately-schooled, and mixing in high society, with a penchant for quoting Latin phrases and enjoying art galleries, concerts and fine wine (he calls it their 'High European sensibility). But what emerges, also, is a rather lonely figure, one lost in his grief, desperately damaged after what has happened in his life. He meets his brother-in-law Max, an outgoing and exuberant artist, and the contrast could not be more harsh. Here is a man, used to working in the shadows, who is trying to work out who he is and where he belongs.

Through the study of his memories of his time with his wife, the parallel of his role as a mediator and his negotiation with those very memories gives the book a subtle framework:
'So, yes, I have been guilty of painting you, of memorialising you, and - as time has gone on - even remembering you, in softer tones than were true to the lived experience.'

This is a quiet novel, where the reader is drawn into an understated, yet still devastating, meditation on loss and grief, and on politics and violence. We come to, yes, feel sorry for this man, even as we laugh at his idiosyncrasies and his high sensibilities. As the peace talks come to an end, the wider metaphor makes us ask: has Edvard, too, managed to find his own kind of peace?

I really enjoyed this. Edvard really develops into a three-dimensional character and one who will draw the reader into a sympathetic relationship, even whilst we can find his glaring faults. From the get-go there is a reference to Thomas Mann's novel 'The Magic Mountain', and this infuses the book with its images and themes; it doesn't really matter if you haven't read it, but if you have then there are subtle (and not so subtle) parallels. Tim Finch writes really well, and perfectly captures the voice of our narrator, without which this would have been a complete loss. As it is, I found this a subtle and moving piece of writing, and would definitely recommend it. 4 stars.

(With thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC of this title.)