At around 160 pages, this novella won't take you long to get through, and I did enjoy the writing. Room on the Sea tells the story of two people, in their sixties, who are called up for jury duty. On the first day, although both are married, they make an instant connection and spend the rest of the week trying to avoid being placed on a jury and spending as much time as possible with each other.

Although both marriages seem to be on life support, the subject matter is a little uncomfortable and it is difficult to be rooting for the couple. At the end of the week, they have a difficult decision to make - do they go back to their lives and forget all about each other, or do they take a chance on something special?

I’ve always really enjoyed André Aciman’s writing, he has a way with language that’s undeniably beautiful, but Room on the Sea didn’t land for me the way his past novels have. Compared to his earlier work, this one felt flat. It lacked the passion, intensity, and emotional pull I’ve come to expect from him.
The story felt like it was mundane and quiet, but not in an interesting way. I kept waiting for something to happen, for the characters to feel more alive, but that moment never really came.
That said, Aciman is still a talented writer, But for me, this novel didn’t stir anything and it just left me a little bored.
Thank you NetGalley, the author and publisher for letting me read a copy in advance in exchange for an honest review

André Aciman is one of the best writers this was such a beautiful novel! This is such a perfect short read and I loved the later in life romance trope.

Beautifully written, with wonderful descriptions of New York.

Did I totally believe that 2 people could, in such a short time, build such a deep relationship? I'm not sure.

But it was an enjoyable page-turner of a book

Gorgeous, lyrical romance
—
I came to this knowing nothing, and what I got was a joyful, lyrical and above all gorgeous romance, set during a week of jury duty, no less. Admittedly, ranging the streets of Manhattan and aching towards the Italian Riviera, but jury duty looms large in the light plot. Rather, this is a daring and hopeful novella of two married strangers who spend an unexpected week discovering what are the limits of happiness. Giving away any detail would be too much as it’s a short book (presented as standalone in the UK but one of three novellas in the US edition), but it’s enough to say that it’s a dreamy tale that is very much as bout real things, and like the best shorter narratives, arrives late and leaves early, offering hope at the end but without giving away all the answers.

Four and a half stars

Classic Aciman: reflective, romantic, ever so wonderfully idealised. This is a small story, and in the hands of any other writer may have proven to be too inconsequential, too forgettable. But as ever, Aciman details the rich and vivid, ludicrous experience of sudden tenderness with such profound loveliness. I went in cynical and came away swooning. So long as Aciman writes, we all fall deeper and deeper in love with love.

✨ARC review✨

I loved the prose in this book. The writing style was so beautiful and all the descriptions were stunning. I also love the idea of a “later in life” romance book but I just don’t think this was for me. I also struggle to properly get into novellas and short stories. I think I just need more time to get to know the characters and fall in love with them.

A couple in their sixties meet as potential jurors and develop a friendship based on jury duty avoidance, but slowly moves into romantic longing.
It’s a slow burner but beautifully written. Worth reading.

Room On The Sea is a novella by Egyptian-born American author, Andre Aciman. On a warm summer Monday, Paul Wadsworth and Catherine Shukoff encounter one another in a Manhattan central jury room. Paul is a retired lawyer, reading the Wall Street Journal while they wait to be sent to a courtroom for jury selection; Catherine is a psychologist who reveals she’s reading Wuthering Heights when she notices Paul’s interest in her reading matter.

While they wait in unairconditioned discomfort (the aircon is not working) they share: Paul offers his foolproof way out of being selected; they chat and enjoy each other’s company; during the lunch break, Paul’s recommendation for a Chinese lunch; whatever the topic, they seem to agree; they like each other’s sense of humour; they arrange to meet for coffee the next morning; they exchange phone numbers; details of their lives; career paths not taken.

They discover a “ships-in-the-night” moment from their youth, and discuss their marriages quite frankly, as each inwardly compares the other to their spouse. They do all they can to ensure they can enjoy each other’s company each day, and they discuss the gloomy prospect that they might not see one another again after their week of juror obligation is up.

As their feelings for each other intensify, they describe the effect of their daily encounters: “I’ve felt young and hopeful again– only to realize that I’d stopped being young and hopeful for so long.” They admit to their unsatisfactory marriages: “… the tiny joke time plays on us: it robs the memory of who we were and what we were able to feel once. As you said, we live with people but totally forget why we’ve chosen to live with them.”

And they consider what might happen if they decide to take it a step further: “There are so many things at stake, all of them possibly quite meagre and frail by now, some downright insignificant. But we’ve built our lives with them and they are who we are, who we’ve been made to be, sometimes even against our will. Where would we be without them?” and they wonder if their relationship would still have the texture of “the casual, improvised meeting that allowed them to feel perfectly natural each time they were thrown together by the court system.” Do they, or don’t they? A thought-provoking tale filled with gorgeous prose.
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Faber & Faber

Room on the Sea by André Aciman – A Review
I first received Room on the Sea as an ARC via NetGalley, but it resonated with me so deeply that I had to own the physical copy. It now sits as a treasured addition to my André Aciman collection, which I began last year with The Gentleman in Peru. This novella has a very different pace and atmosphere. While The Gentleman in Peru drifts through memory with a kind of sunlit nostalgia, Room on the Sea is set in a heat-filled New York; the story feels suspended in time, dense with stillness and longing. The characters are caught in the quiet pause of jury duty; their professional roles—he a lawyer, she a psychologist—are mentioned only in passing. What matters more is how they seem to see something in each other instantly. Their connection feels inevitable, as if they have been moving toward this moment without ever realising it. They occupy what Aciman refers to as a “shadow house,” a space where desire, memory and imagination shape a reality just outside the reach of ordinary life.

What stayed with me most was Aciman’s portrayal of New York. It is not the restless, noisy city we are used to; here it is inward, heavy, and slowed by heat. Unlike the Italian setting of Aciman’s previous work, where emotions gather gradually, this story begins with a connection already formed. There is no build-up to intimacy; instead, we enter it at full depth. The story does not follow a typical arc; instead, it allows us to witness a moment of profound emotional recognition. Their physical surroundings fade into the background; the focus remains on their shared inner world. They don’t need to explain who they are—the understanding between them comes effortlessly. It is as if their thoughts mirror each other; their views on the world quietly align, and something between them feels deeply familiar, as though they had met long before.

There is a quiet attempt, almost subconscious, to recreate the feeling of Italy—that suspended sense of time you feel when you’re on holiday, especially somewhere along the coast or in Naples. It begins with the simple mention of Italy and slowly builds into a kind of emotional mirage: two people, deeply connected, breathing in a moment that feels outside of time. It’s like sipping an espresso together at a shaded café, where everything slows down and the world narrows to just the two of you. Aciman captures that holiday hush, not through setting, but through stillness, shared breath, and emotional proximity.

At the heart of this novella is the theme of longing: the desire to be elsewhere, to feel unstuck, to reach a happiness that always seems just out of reach. It is not just romantic longing, but the longing for a different life, a different self. The way they connect, intellectually, emotionally, quietly, was the part I found most powerful. It is not a grand love story, but a quiet, complex encounter between two people who seem to find a kind of refuge in each other. Their conversations are layered, their silences full of meaning; the emotional tension is subtle but persistent.

Room on the Sea is not a story that offers clear answers or resolutions. It lingers; it asks you to sit with the feeling of something unfinished but deeply felt. Aciman writes about those rare moments of recognition; when someone feels known before they are known—and the ache of knowing that such moments cannot last. If you’ve ever felt caught between the life you’re living and the life you’re longing for, this novella will stay with you long after it ends.

Andre Aciman's Room on the Sea is a short, but sweet, reflection on life, love and what could have been. It follows an older man and woman who meet whilst waiting around at jury duty. The pair spend most of their time wishing they were in Italy and skirting around the awkward acknowledgement of their own spouses and their lives that seem to be on hold whilst they are together. Aciman perfectly captures the joy that the pair feel when they are with one another and despite lamenting on the missed opportunity of the life they might have had together, their is a sense of hope that encapsulates the novella. I read Room on the Sea in one sitting and found Aciman's writing style comletely relaxing and easy to read, but also took me on a contemplative journey into what it means to love and be loved, especially in later life.

This was novella was lovely little sweet treat!
A couple meet at jury duty in New York and strike up a conversation, and it turns out that they have more in common than they realise. Like any of Aciman's books, A Room on the Sea is charming, nostalgic and poetic. The chemistry between the characters is so believable and palpable that you can't help but be drawn in. I absolutely loved this little book!

Having loved ‘Call Me By Your Name’ and ‘Find Me, I had high hopes for ‘Room on the Sea’. This is a short novel about two strangers, Catherine and ?, who meet on jury duty in New York.

The couple get to know each other, enjoying breaks and coffees, lunches, too, and neither is summoned to serve. While waiting to be called, the two realise they have a lot in common. It is clear that they are not happy in their respective marriages and throughout the week, they get to know each other, and dream, particularly, about Naples. It seems that they are both hankering after an escape to southern Italy

I like the way that two adults meet and strike up an important, memorable friendship. However, this is quite schmaltzy and cliched and it is hard to believe that Catherine’s husband and ?’s wife are au fait with the whole situation. I guess it might be a case of these peripheral characters not knowing, or caring, about their respective spouse’s ’jury life’ but it feels implausible.

In some ways, this would work better if longer. Aciman covers a lot of ground in a short read. It starts well but I feel it tails off and becomes unoriginal towards the last section. Admittedly, it’s life-affirming that an older couple can find such pleasure in someone else, however.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

A short, introspective read which is quaint and burns with passion in equal measure. I didn't feel strongly about our two characters but this novella was carried by the beauty of its prose. Always something we can count on Andre Aciman for. It follows two people who meet while waiting for jury selection. The week that follows feels almost like a dream world, a moment in time suspended from real life. A space for true emotion to flourish.

A pleasant novella or maybe just a short story I can’t make my mind up. I didn’t feel strongly about either character but the delightful writing style carried the tale along well. It could have had a ‘six months later’ chapter at the end to tidy it up but that’s probably e needing a tidy finish.

Another exquisitely written book from Andre Aciman - you will not be disappointed.

Writing that captures the almost intangible experience of emotions; fragments of time, snippets of memories and the ever perplexing trajectory of the human heart - which often surprises us by remaining the most simplistic of all in its desires.

Catherine and Paul inserted themselves into my life during the reading of this book and I did not want to let them go.

Beautiful.

Many thanks to NetGalley for my ARC of this title. All views are my own.

I really enjoyed this little novella covering just a week in the lives of two people who meet while waiting for jury selection in a New York court room.

A series of occurrences means they get to spend more time together than expected and a deep and intense connection forms between them quickly.

I really liked the way the characters were older than you usually see in a a quirky 'meet cute' and that they were complete equals in status and age so no dodgy age gap/power play. The enigmatic ending was perfect too

This was a very gentle, easy to read book, about two people in their sixties who meet on jury service, and find they like spending time together.
They start an affair and talk about Naples a lot. It's about what could have been, had they met 40 years ago.
There was just something about this book that made me want to read and know more.
Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for an arc in exchange for an honest review.

Andre Aciman has a slow but steady way of unravelling a beautiful love story. At first, it's two witty older people, you don't care for them much and yet in the matter of under 100 pages, you urge for them to love one another for life. I love my fair share of wattpad-y romance, believe me, but nothing, absolutely nothing, beats a beautiful contemporary that whisks you away.

Best known for Call Me By Your Name, André Aciman returns with a short novella. "Room on the Sea" is the romantic story of Paul and Catherine and those quick but meaningful moments that mean so much when you connect so much to another person. It was also a nice treat to see characters who were adults because we're often just fed teenage characters. Aciman has a way with those small details that reveal a character's true emotions, and how they feel about the other person. A book to drink with a nice cup of tea on a warm Sunday afternoon.