2.5⭐️
when i read ‘call me by your name’ i was totally transfixed, and i loved the story. having read that, i had an idea of what to expect as far as andre’s writing, which i don’t love, but i wanted to give this a chance because i loved the ~vibes~ of CMBYN and was hoping for something similar.

this book is actually a compilation of 3 different novellas with differing story lines, and sadly i didn’t love a single one of them. the first story, titled “the gentleman from peru” was definitely the one i enjoyed the most of the 3, but all of them just felt very long-winded and did not catch my interest. 🫤 i think what i enjoyed the most about this book as a whole was the atmospheric feel and the vivid descriptions of the varying settings, which seems to be a common theme in aciman’s writing! personally, i would recommend ‘call me by your name’ instead of this one.

thank you so much to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for providing this ARC for me to read & review! 🫶🏼

I'm unsure on this book, to say the least, and that's kinda a nice way to say I didn't loved it as much as I wished.

On one hand I really liked the writing style, but the story, not so much. I enjoyed parts of it but the general feeling was not good.
I appreciate the fact that the main characters were older people rather than teens or even young adults, that was refreshing but I feel that more than a love story this is actually a story about mid life crisis and two people that experienced it together, and as such, I had a hard time connecting to the "romance" and I was definitely uncomfortable with the cheating aspect.

I also found the pacing a bit weird. Some of the stories been stretched out till the point of exhaustion while other parts flew nicely. It wasn't too cohesive for my taste.

In general, I guess is an ok but flat book and ultimately it just wasn't for me and I'm very happy that it was short.

I don't know what it is about André Aciman, but he softens the cold-hearted cynic in me. It doesn’t matter how sentimental his (typically romantic) stories are, they never feel to saccharine or cringeworthy and I always get swept up in them by the end.

Room on the Sea is a collection of three novellas which were originally published as Audible exclusives and now get to be read on the page, which is probably the best way to experience Aciman’s writing, in my opinion. While they’re all romances, the similarities between the stories pretty much stop there. Aciman uses each of these romantic tales to tell wildly different love stories.

“The Gentleman from Peru,” the story of star-crossed lovers, is classic Aciman. Sweeping, poetic, and tragic. “Mariana” is the most stylish story, almost taking the form of a monologue about unrequited love. And “Room on the Sea,” by far my favorite in the collection, is a very subtle, realist story about a late-in-life spark between two people who meet at jury duty.

Aciman’s writing is, as usual, strong throughout, and I had a great time reading a collection that felt both thematically tight and yet narratively diverse.

Thank you to Farrar, Straus and Giroux for providing an Advanced Reader Copy of A Room on the Sea, a captivating trio of short stories: A Gentleman from Peru, A Room on the Sea, and Mariana.

The collection opens with A Gentleman from Peru, where an elderly man with a mysterious ability to sense the future encounters a younger woman in an Italian hotel. Together, they journey through his memories, though their origin is unexpectedly ambiguous. This story’s reflective tone and thread of magical realism are mesmerizing, and Aciman’s skillful integration of character exposition into dialogue immerses the reader fully in the narrative.

A Room on the Sea shifts to Manhattan, where a man and woman bond over a chance conversation about Wuthering Heights. Their subsequent discussions explore aging, ideals, and self-awareness with remarkable authenticity. The dialogue feels as intimate and unfiltered as overhearing strangers on a train, drawing readers into the raw humanity of their exchange.

Finally, Mariana delves into the anguish of unrequited love and self-betrayal. Though slower in pace, it provides a deeply introspective look at a woman grappling with her attachment to a man who is clearly undeserving of her devotion.

Aciman’s ability to craft profoundly human stories through exquisite prose and vivid character development is unparalleled. Each story is a testament to his talent for exploring vulnerability, emotion, and connection.

This collection left me eager to read more of Aciman’s work. It’s an outstanding example of literary fiction at its finest.

These are three really intriguing short stories about relationships, love and sex. They are also about 'fate' and the missed opportunities that can transform people's lives.

In The Gentleman From Peru, a group of American tourists engage with a lone older man, Raul, who is also staying at the same hotel. What follows is a series of increasingly surreal conversations as the group realise the man seems to have some kind of special abilities - he seems to know details about all of them with no explanation as to why.

The conversations between the characters are clever, true to life and engaging. There is very little judgement in how the characters are described - they just are as they are.

This was a beguiling story, as Raul becomes closer to one of the Americans, Margot, and we learn they have a shared past in a completely different lifetime. This is the crux of the story - the idea that these two people have crossed paths in several lifetimes and will continue to do so, although in circumstances that mean they can't be together: 'I will again and again run into you, but I'll be too old or too young, or you'll be too old or too young.

'At some point fate will realign our calendars and, if we're lucky, we'll live seventy long years together and then never again.'

Room On The Sea sees two people, Catherine and Paul, thrown together when both are waiting to see if they'll be selected for jury duty. They have an instant connection and spend their time while waiting around the court getting to know each other. Over the course of around a week they develop inexplicably intense feelings for one another, leading both to think of leaving their respective partners.

The author is clever to add points of uncertainty and tension into the story. It isn't simply 'onwards and upwards' - instead there are moments when Catherine feels awkward, doesn't know what to say to him, feels uncomfortable. This makes the situation feel more realistic. But the relationship blossoms nonetheless.

Fate features in this story too, as it transpires that the two lived in the same building many years before. Would it have been better had they met back then? As Catherine puts it, 'That's a long time. I don't want to be who I was then.' So there is the sense that they've been brought together at the right time in their lives.

I enjoyed both of these stories but Mariana is the one that I found to be the most striking. It's a monologue from a woman who has been ditched by a man she'd become obsessed with, and her descriptions of the impact he has had on her life. She's been humiliated by thinking that they were beginning a serious relationship when for him it was just another fling.

She describes how her life still seems to revolve around him - planning when to do shopping so she may run into him and so on. The writing is very raw and unflinching, and completely draws in the reader.

I have to start this review by saying that I loved Aciman's writing in the past. He has a way of capturing lust, romantic locations and the awkwardness that comes from some feelings.

In saying this, this short story collection wasnt for me. The plot of the three stories are focused on the same theme of mature affairs. While I enjoyed the difference in storytelling approaches in each of the stories, and the language on a whole, I did not enjoy the actual plots.

I feel like Aciman failed to capture the lust of the affairs in these stories that I am used to experiencing from his writing. The characters were finely tuned but also not memorable which leaves them fading into black for me. Not his strongest work.

*Room on the Sea* by André Aciman is a luminous meditation on love, memory, and the quiet moments that shape our lives. With his signature elegance and emotional precision, Aciman crafts a story that lingers like a gentle tide, leaving readers both moved and longing for more.

This was a very cohesive and enjoyable collection. Aciman's prose and clear love for Italy shines through and gives the collection a breezy feel, fit for summer. However, I found the pacing of the general collection to be a bit too slow for my personal taste. Stories that I thought had progressed beautifully stretched to the point of exhaustion, and stories that I thought started off boring developed into something quite beautiful by the end.

01. The Gentleman from Peru ★★★
Very atmospheric and quite poignant and beautiful, though I found the beginning of the story a bit too slow to trudge through and ultimately of little to no support to the main themes and point of the story.

02. Room On The Sea ★★★
Much like the previous story, it has interesting concept but whereas the last drags on the beginning, the middle of the story drags on without offering a deeper arch into the characters, so the length felt unnecessary, though I enjoyed the end.

03. Mariana ★★★.5
Quite enjoyed this final story. I think that for the themes and styles that Áciman wants to dive into, letters or monologues work much better. Although like the other stories I found this one to drag at some point (towards the end), this story held a lot more philosophies and intricacies for me. The overall discussion on love and heartbreak was so well done and relatable.

Lovely writing that is full of yearning and expressed in three very different stories.

I was most captivated by “Room on the Sea” in which we encounter two strangers who meet at jury duty. "The Gentleman from Peru" was also compelling and mysterious. "Mariana" made me anxious but I appreciated the style (relentless pace) and storytelling.

Thank you to Farrar, Straus and Giroux and NetGalley for the opportunity to read a copy.

Oh, this was BEAUTIFUL!!! I couldn't and didn't want to put it down. The prose is breathtaking and it was a delight to read, so I'm ending my 2024 reading year on a high note. This book includes 3 novellas, though I'd say it's more like 2 novellas and a short story. The two novellas were my absolute favorites, The Gentleman from Peru and Room on the Sea.

The Gentleman from Peru is about a man who can perceive alternate versions of people's lives, the ones that sprout with every choice we make. He meets a group of young Americans traveling together and the story starts with him as a mentor, sharing his knowledge, but then he starts spending more time with one of the women in the group. The story changes from that point, and the reveal is so beautiful.

I loved the idea of soulmates continuing to exist after they're gone and the inevitability of us finding them again in our alternate versions, even if it takes hundreds of years for us to coincide and meet each other again at the right time.

-

Room on the Sea is about a man and a woman in their 60s/70s who meet during jury duty and they connect for a week. We see how their connection builds and how the love that grows between them awakens something in them that they thought was long gone. This story is also about soulmatism, but in a different context.

They're both married, which may be an issue for some people, but I didn't mind it. The way the story unfolds, you can't be angry about two people finding genuine love. It would be different if it was just lust and it was ill-intentioned, but this just didn't feel that way. It kind of reminded me of that old movie, Brief Encounter, which I love.

-

Lastly, there's Mariana, a short story that's basically this woman writing a long letter to the man who broke her heart. I think it drags a little, but it explores very well what it feels like to fall deeply in love with someone who was only infatuated with you and what it's like when their infatuation stops, but the love you feel for them continues, no matter what you do to try to get over it.

Overall, a nearly perfect collection of novellas and I will definitely get a physical copy of it when I can.

Andre Acimán writes about obsessive love like no other. The Gentleman from Peru will be in my mind for a long time, the use of magical realism is so beautiful and the whole story is very captivating. Mariana’s letter is so beautifully written and will resonate with fans of CMBYN.

4 ★

This book is a collection of three novellas, written by none other than the author of “Call Me By Your Name” - André Aciman.

Now, I'll be honest I haven't read “Call Me By Your Name” yet, but I adore the movie and thought it was time to finally read something by this author.

I will divide this review into three parts because each novella for sure deserves it's own rating.

•*⁀➷ The Gentleman from Peru 4★

This was such a strong start to this book. First of all, let me just say that the writing is beautiful. A pleasure to read. The older man mentioned in the title meets a group of younger people and becomes an unexpected (and at first unwanted) mentor-like figure for them.

The point of the story, and the mentor's musings, is that there are people walking the earth who are essentially alternative versions of us. They're who we could've become had we made different choices, but we can't pick them out from the crowd. But this man can. And because there are so many different versions of us in the world, that also means that our soulmates still exist somewhere even after we've lost them.

I will admit that the story taking a turn from a mentor-mentee dynamic into a clearly romantic one took me by surprise, especially with the age gap, but it didn't put me off because I felt like the main point of it was just being able to share another moment with a long lost soulmate and nothing else.

It was a very intriguing read, beautifully written and exploring a very unique way of looking at life.

•*⁀➷ Room on the Sea 4★

This story had me feeling very conflicted about the characters themselves and their actions, but that seems to be something I've been enjoying lately.

We read about two people in their late sixties/early seventies, unhappily married, meeting in court during jury duty and finding their first glimpses of romantic happiness in years in each other. It follows five days of them stealing moments and treading lines.

Now, for me, anything including infidelity itself, or even musing about infidelity, is usually a miss. And yet, somehow, this wasn't.

As I said I've been loving literature that can challenge my way of looking at things lately, and without changing the way I feel about certain issues, it makes me see them in a slightly different light. I like being shown a perspective I couldn't come up with on my own, and this definitely did that for me.

•*⁀➷ Mariana 3.5★

The last novella was, unfortunately, a little disappointing. For me, it was one of those stories that you like a lot when looking back at it, but while reading, it felt like it dragged on a little.

This story was the inner monologue of Mariana, dealing with a heartbreak and writing a letter to the one who broke her heart. Her feelings and insights were relatable and while her story while pretty simple, was still very interesting. As I said, thinking about it now, I think it was brilliant. But it was, at times, hard to appreciate that while reading because of the way it was written.

All in all I still enjoyed all three of these novellas a lot. They are not the type of stories that pierce your heart, but they are very pleasant to look back on if that makes sense. I'd definitely recommend them (especially the first two) and I'll be for sure be reaching for some more of André Aciman's work soon.

Thank you NetGalley and Farrar, Straus and Giroux for the ARC.

i'm gonna keep this short and sweet.

1. the gentleman by peru- 5/5 MY FAVORITE.
("we spend more time than we know trying to go back. we call it fantasizing, we call it dreaming- but we're all crawling back, each in his or her own way.")

2. mariana- this was painful to read. she was so relatable and it felt like at times i was looking in the mirror because the stuff she say or do i do too. 4/5

3. room on the sea- his was a very frank and understanding look at human failings, served up to the reader in a very digestible and relatable format. 2 people met during jury selection and started having a secret relationship despite them having partners themselves. as you sow, so shall you reap TW: infidelity 3/5

as far as i know i enjoyed every single one of these novellas. very modern literature with a touch of classic.
thank you Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

After loving "Call Me By Your Name" and being disappointed by "Find Me", I wanted to give Aciman one final try. This book, a collection of three novellas exploring obsessional love, missed connections, and enduring regret, felt like a fitting test.

Here’s what I thought of each story:

1. The Gentleman from Peru : This was my favorite. It’s about a group of friends, who meet Raul, a mysterious guest with the ability to heal and see into alternate lives (called “shadow worlds” in the story). The concept was fascinating, and I loved how it was tied to a fated romance. Aciman’s descriptions of the Amalfi Coast are stunning and gave me the same sense of longing I felt when reading CMBYN. It’s the kind of story that makes you feel nostalgic for a place you’ve never been to.

2. Mariana : A modern retelling of The Portuguese Letters, this story follows Mariana, an American graduate in Italy, as she spirals after a brief affair with an artist. It’s about a woman dealing with heartbreak and the feeling of being replaced.What stood out to me was how relatable Mariana’s emotions were. Her thoughts about love and self-worth felt very real. It was painful but cathartic to read, and I appreciated how honestly it explored the aftermath of a short-lived but intense relationship.

3.Room on the Sea: The story follows Paul and Catherine, two people who meet during jury selection and start an affair despite being married. While there were moments that explored longing and regret beautifully, I couldn’t get past the infidelity.That said, the exploration of what it means to live with unfulfilled dreams and desires was moving in parts, even if the story didn’t fully work for me.

Overall, I didn’t love this book, but I didn’t hate it either. Aciman’s writing is as beautiful as ever, and there are moments in each story that shine. But the collection felt uneven to me. I think fans of his writing and themes might enjoy this one more than I did.

Rating : 🌟🌟🌟/5

Room on the Sea by André Aciman is a meditative and melancholic exploration of fleeting connections and the ache of "what if." The story of Paul and Catherine—a chance encounter during jury duty that turns into a brief yet emotionally intense connection—is beautifully written, as expected from Aciman. His prose is lush and introspective, perfectly capturing the bittersweet nature of longing and the tension between reality and fantasy.

While Aciman's fans will appreciate his trademark exploration of memory and desire, the book’s slow pace and heavy introspection might not be for everyone. It’s perfect if you’re in the mood for a reflective and poetic read, but some may find it lacks the plot momentum of his other works. A quiet, wistful story for fans of character-driven narratives.

Thanks to the phenomenal success of Call Me By Your Name, André Aciman can be considered one of the best-known contemporary writers of “literary romance”. Room on the Sea is a volume which brings together three novellas, each of which explores a different facet of love: A Gentleman from Peru, Mariana and the title story, Room on the Sea.

I had read (and reviewed) A Gentleman from Peru some months back and had found it, on the whole, underwhelming. Its premise is a promising one, combining elements of a romance between an older man and a younger woman, with a dose of magical realism or speculative fiction. However, I thought that the story did not achieve its full potential. I’m happy to report that in this volume, it works better, because it provides an interesting contrast to the other two featured stories. For instance, Room on the Sea eschews the magical realism in favour of a very “factual” of a budding affair between a man and a woman in their 60s. They meet on a jury pool, and soon find a rapport which has gone missing in their relationship with their respective spouses. The story starts almost banally, and the dialogue is often cringy – perhaps precisely because it feels so authentic, often consisting of self-conscious conversation between two relatively elderly people having the type of crush more typical of the teens and twenties. Beyond the sketchy plot, Room on the Sea is an often thoughtful story about relationships in old age.

In my view, however, the most striking item from a literary perspective is the final novella, Mariana, which as Aciman explains in an afterword, is a reworking of a 17th Century pseudo-authentic epistolary novel: The Portuguese Letters. The original, generally attributed to Gabriel-Joseph de Lavergne, comte de Guilleragues (1628-1684), consists of the confession of a young Portuguese nun, who is seduced and then abandoned by a French officer. Aciman transposes the story into a contemporary tale of an American graduate in her early twenties who is spending time in an academy in Italy while (in a meta-literary twist) working on a manuscript about a novel published in 1669. Aciman’s Mariana falls for an artist staying at the same academy who, quite soon afterwards, replaces her with his latest flame. It is a story about obsessive love, and makes for a striking psychological study.

While I have reservations about the individual novellas, they work well together, adding up to more than the sum of their respective parts.

3.5*

https://endsoftheword.blogspot.com/2024/12/room-on-the-sea-three-novellas-Aciman.html

I’m conflicted!
The first story (the gentleman from Peru) was by far my favourite of the three. What can I say, I’m a sucker for soulmates and poetic writing

But the last story (Mariana) was an uncomfortable read. The story is the ramblings of an obsessed woman and I get that it is supposed to be read as desperation but I don’t went to read about “the smell of his armpits that takes her back to her childhood” ???

𝙈𝙖𝙣𝙮 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙣𝙠𝙨 𝙩𝙤 𝙉𝙚𝙩𝙜𝙖𝙡𝙡𝙚𝙮 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙁𝙖𝙧𝙧𝙖𝙧, 𝙎𝙩𝙧𝙖𝙪𝙨 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙂𝙞𝙧𝙤𝙪𝙭 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙡𝙚𝙩𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙢𝙚 𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙙 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙗𝙤𝙤𝙠 𝙞𝙣 𝙚𝙭𝙘𝙝𝙖𝙣𝙜𝙚 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙖𝙣 𝙝𝙤𝙣𝙚𝙨𝙩 𝙧𝙚𝙫𝙞𝙚𝙬!

Thank you to Farrar, Straus and Giroux for offering me an Advanced Reader Copy of “A Room on the Sea” which includes this title and two others: “A Gentleman from Peru” and “Mariana”

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

“It didn't flourish, it didn't blossom, it simply sprang on them that day on the beach when he'd thrown his water bottle next to her on the sand and then touched her skin. Because neither even thought, much less wished, there could be anything between them, they let their bodies decide, not their hearts, not their minds, not even the thrill of secrecy from everyone in the household.”

“A Gentleman from Peru” tells a story of an elderly man blessed (or cursed) with a gift to see, or sense, some form of the future. He meets a younger woman in a hotel in Italy, perhaps not wholly by accident, and takes her with him down memory lane, only to discover that perhaps these memories are not his alone.

I was immediately hooked into this story as the opening of this trio of short stories. It was engaging, interesting and most of all incredibly reflective. The manner in which André Aciman is able to weave character exposition into dialogue is absolutely amazing, and I felt as if I was there with the characters as their story unfolded. I also adored the magical realism thread throughout the story.

——————

"The funny thing is that, when you read the story of my life, the one thing that strings it all together is the list of what the French call my numberless rendezvous manqués, my missed appointments, missed opportunities, missed encounters, big mistakes, and all those moments that almost happened but never did and still linger and won't ever give up long after I have. Caffe Reggio is a case in point."

“A Room on the Sea” focuses on the meeting of a man and a woman in Manhattan, New York. The woman is reading Wuthering Heights and the man comments on it, striking up a conversation that is a match to a quickly burning flame. During their following conversations, they reflect on their lives and on the process of aging, as well as their dreams and ideals.

I found this particular story to be enchanting in its depth and detail. The dialogue was as if overhearing two people speak to one another on public transport, and during their conversations they each addressed and discussed their flaws and their faults, doing so in a manner that felt real and raw.

——————

“Sometimes I feel that life invited me to live. I accepted. But life changed its mind and gave me a rain check. Or maybe, without even knowing it, it was I who asked for the rain check, because I wanted more and better, and life had run out of options.
Come next year, it said.”

“Mariana” tells the story of a woman dejected by the man she loves. It not only outlines her hurt and jealousy, but also the way she feels almost betrayed by her constant reverting back to this man even though he is everything but good for her.

Although this was my least favourite of the three, this was not because of any faults of the story. It ran slightly on, but in the end provided another deep insight into a person’s thoughts and feelings, something this trilogy of short stories has taught me is one of Aciman’s great strength as a writer.


Overall, as you can tell, I absolutely adored this collection of stories and have become a great admirer of Aciman’s. I cannot wait to read more of his work now, and so I want to extend my thanks once again to the publisher for allowing me to read this ahead of publication date through NetGalley.

For some reason, I had difficulty connecting to the three stories in this book. Their ideas were intriguing, but they were not my favorite type of storytelling overall. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

(3.5 rounded up) This is a collection of three novellas about contemporary love by André Aciman. Aciman writes so poetically about love and all of it’s complications. “The Gentleman from Peru" continues in Call Me by Your Name’s tradition of delicious descriptions of Italy and age-gap romance, “Room on the Sea” is a love affair between two 60-somethings who meet on jury duty, and “Mariana” is about a woman scorned, telling her sad story of loving a man who didn’t love her in the same way. “Mariana” was my favorite of the three, but I enjoyed all of them, if Aciman’s writing does occasionally feel too repetitive for my taste. His writing is lush and sensory descriptions are divine, but it can become a bit tedious. I did, overall, really enjoy this. If you’ve read from Aciman before and liked him, definitely give this a try.