"Sometimes a random moment occurs, and then you realise it came with a small halo"

Less is more; depth in simplicity and beauty . Room on the Sea is just this - a novella with a powerful and reflective message about life and unspoken dreams or regrets.

Catherine and Paul are strangers and are requested to attend selection for jury service; Catherine is a psychologist and Paul a lawyer. whilst awaiting selection, they strike up a conversation that will change their lives.

Set over the course of five days, the two sixty-somethings embark on a discovery- self exploration of the people they are, who they thought they were and what they could still be.

"We're just two ordinary lonely people who happen to be married and at this point may not want the furniture moved around too much."

André Aciman has a beautiful eye for the minutiae in lives- the unsaid ; those invisible withheld emotions and the joy of finding life in the smallest joys.

This is a moving story as the two characters embark through a work of transformation- rather like a Brief Encounter ( Noel Coward) for the 2020's.

Subtle, enchanting and exquisite - a novel to make those of a certain age reflect or maybe everyone ..life is precious and its easy to squander it.

A highly recommended read.

Quotes: " Ive forgotten what it's like to be with someone who is eager to laugh with me, to know what I like, what I think and with whomI'm dying to speak every day"

" The problem with people our age, " she went on, " is that we've lived through or imagined too many variations on the same scene and know where most lead."...... We even know better than to speak our doubts, much less to those who shouldn't hear them for fear they'd change their minds bout us."

I was excited to read this and it started off really well. For me personally, I just wasn't invested in it and found that towards the end I wasn't as hooked as I like to be when reading. But I shall give my review from start to end!

Firstly, I did think the premise of setting it up in a jury room was really exciting and fresh. It's not a typical or predictable meet cute and if anything it's kind of an awkward place to meet someone you have the hots for. So kudos to Aciman for choosing such a unique premise and setting to put these characters in. There was an immediate sense of ease and comfortability between Paul and Catherine that was definitely undeniable. I think Aciman writes the feeling of 'home' really well and this extends to finding home in others too. I really loved how he described moments in life sometimes occurring with a 'small halo' - this felt really beautiful and spoke to the earnestness of Paul and Catherines' relationship. I also think there was a deeply profound point made about familiarity and the rhythms/routines we all find ourselves victim of. 'We mistake familiarity for intimacy. It is not intimacy. All it is is habit - a habit is shorthand for silence' - deeply moving and perfectly phrased!

Speaking of their relationship though, there is an elephant in the room for me here. Both Paul and Catherine are in a relationship, with other people. They are married and whilst we learn about how unsatisfactory they both find their respective marriages - they are still cheating! At least emotionally. Now I'm not going to stand on a moral high ground here, but I feel like it was hard for me to get invested in their relationship when at it's core it felt deceitful and morally ambiguous. This aside, I also felt like other than their similarities and ease with each other I didn't feel much chemistry on the page. They are slightly more mature than perhaps characters in other romance books, but I didn't feel anything sizzle between them I just felt like I was watching two people have conversations in a coffee shop that often teetered on inappropriately flirtatious.

Personally, I also think the book lacked true development in the plot. Yes, they find each other and have a big realisation about how unhappy they are in their lives but I didn't feel like much happened - it was a bit lacklustre especially given how exciting it felt when they both saw each other for the first time.

Overall, this book didn't do it for me I liked the premise but the problematic cheating and lack of an overall movement in the plot (other than the cheating part) wasn't exciting enough for me.

"Two would-be lovers trying to slip back into a past that never was."

'Room on the Sea' is a subtle story, beautifully and carefully observed. Two people in later life, both committed elsewhere, meet by chance on jury service and spend a week almost-dating, flirting, and constantly scratching the itch of poignant might-have-beens - what if they had met when they were younger, what if, what if, what if....

It reminded me a little of the Cary Grant/Deborah Kerr film 'An Affair to Remember', where one of the leads says plaintively "We've already missed the spring." This novella, to me at least, felt a much less romantic story though, more clear-eyed, its subject perhaps less love than getting older, the future getting smaller: a polite, middle-class batsqueak of terror at mortality.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance copy.

What a beautiful short novel. Only 160 or so pages long but I savoured every page. The story of Catherine And Paul who meet in a waiting room for potential jury service. An immediate spark flies between them and in between jury selection sessions they meet for breakfast and lunch which then turns into a drink ata the end of the day, which then becomes more and more. Both in their sixties, married and with grandchildren, can they upend their lives for the promise of something more.