Title: Love Virtually
Author: Daniel Glattauer
Genre: General Fiction/Romance
The Blurb:
“…It begins by chance: Leo receives emails in error from an unknown woman called Emmi. Being polite he replies, and Emmi writes back. A few brief exchanges are all it takes to spark a mutual interest in each other, and soon Emmi and Leo are sharing their innermost secrets and longings. The erotic tension simmers, and it seems only a matter of time before they will meet in person. But they keep putting off the moment – the prospect both unsettles and excites them. And, after all, Emmi is happily married. Will their feelings for each other survive the test of a real-life encounter?..”
My Thoughts: Hubby and I are travelling to Europe in June this year and I set myself a challenge to read books set in every country that we’ll be visiting. While googling for inspiration I came across Stu’s blog: Winston’s Dad’s blog – a veritable mine of translated books from around the world.
LOVE VIRTUALLY was the result, to cover the Austrian part of our travels. And what a lucky find it is too as it was a fantastic read.
The title is slightly misleading, because to say LOVE VIRTUALLY is just a romance does not do the book justice, in fact it is really hard to pigeonhole as it is more a contemporary look at relationships in which the idea of love, and the process of falling in love, plays an important part. It is really hard to write about my reading experience without giving anything away. The characters of Leo and Emmi just jumped out of the pages at me – despite my anger at what they were doing I was totally engrossed in the events as they unfurled. The whole story is written as a series of emails (hence the word virtual in the title) which pulled me in as if I was some kind of voyeur. There are times when I wanted to smack them both, other times I was totally cheering one or the other on. LOVE VIRTUALLY is a very contemporary novel set in the increasingly computer dependent world we live in, where more and more often the barrier between reality and virtuality often blurs and disappears altogether. The ending was both predictable and a surprise, and yet so perfect for the story.
Rating: A – Excellent. I could not put it down.
For more about the author – Click Here (Please note his website is in German)
This does look a good book (sigh, another added to the book list!) what struck me about your review was the name Emmi. An unusual name, not often heard, but I had an Aunt Emmi. She married my Uncle, my Grandmother’s brother and my Grandmother always referred to Emmi as German.
Now I am curious, I know very little about Emmi including where she was from, did German really mean German or was she Austrian? Is the name common in both countries? How did she & my uncle meet, during the war, did he liberate a camp? There are so many questions, questions I had not contemplated recently until I read your review & spotted that name.
Have a great trip to Europe, pack a jumper or two, it’s cooler here!!
The country is not named in the book – but I am going to settle for Austria because that is where the person who suggested the book placed it
A jumper – but it’s going to be almost summer when we’re there (June) I’m thinking cool cotton, short sleeves and sun hat
LOL!
Well, if I am going to research my Aunt I have to start somewhere & Austria is as good as anywhere!
I terms if the weather regardless I would def pack a jumper & one if those role up jackets, this is European weather you know! Lol
This sounds really good. I wonder if it’s anything like Goodbye for Now by Laurie Frankel, which I’m trying to be a book evangelist for! It’s about a computer-matched couple and has a lot of themes related to online “lives”.