Suvarna Garge (Editor)

Valentines (short story collection)

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Country
  
United States

Publication date
  
January 30, 2007

Pages
  
224 (Paperback)

Originally published
  
30 January 2007

Page count
  
224 (Paperback)

Publisher
  
Pantheon Books

Language
  
English

Media type
  
Print (Paperback)

ISBN
  
0-307-28055-1

Author
  
Ólafur Jóhann Ólafsson

Genre
  
Fiction

Similar
  
The Journey Home, Walking into the Night, Absolution

Valentines is an award-winning collection of short stories by Olaf Olafsson.

Contents

Synopsis

The twelve stories in Valentines are linked by the months of the year. Each brisk story captures the most candid moments between spouses, family members, and lovers—moments when dangerous feelings surge to the surface and everything changes. A wife realizes her closest confidante is much more than that. A father tries to dress his new lover in the clothing of his late wife. A woman, watching her son and husband from afar, sees something she can never forget.

Critical reception

"Olafsson is an admirably brisk, compelling narrator." - Kirkus Reviews

"...Utterly compelling…Olafsson’s Nordic realism a la Bergman holds a ghastly fascination." - Publishers Weekly

"Olafsson ... gives us cleanly written stories, eschewing sentimental for a matter-of fact presentation of the shadowy emotional burdens that always lie between the lines." - Providence Journal

Awards

  • 2006 Icelandic Literary Prize for Fiction
  • References

    Valentines (short story collection) Wikipedia