Product Description

1992: Leo Deakin wakes up in a hospital somewhere in South America, his girlfriend Eleni is dead and Leo doesn't know where he is or how Eleni died. He blames himself for the tragedy and is sucked into a spiral of despair. But Leo is about to discover something which will change his life forever. 1917: Moritz Daniecki is a fugitive from a Siberian POW camp. Seven thousand kilometres over the Russian Steppes separate him from his village and his sweetheart, whose memory has kept him alive through carnage and captivity. The Great War may be over, but Moritz now faces a perilous journey across a continent riven by civil war. When Moritz finally limps back into his village to claim the hand of the woman he left behind, will she still be waiting? Danny Scheinmann paints a dramatic portrait of two men sustaining their lives through the memory of love. Cinematic and brimming with raw emotions, it is the magnificent and emotive debut from a remarkable new writer.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #331 in Books
• Published on: 2008-01-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 432 pages

Review
An antiphonal narrative covers a physical trek from Siberia to Poland around the time of the Russian Revolution and an emotional journey from grief to love in the early 1990s.While on an adventurous journey to Ecuador in 1992, Leo Deakin and his Greek lover Eleni have an accident that leaves her dead and him inconsolable. After Eleni's funeral, Leo makes his way home to England to continue his academic work (he's writing a dissertation on ants), but he's crushed by grief and unable to concentrate. His father Frank is uncommunicative and of little therapeutic help; ditto for Charlotte Philips, a saccharine bereavement counselor: "If marzipan could speak it would sound like Mrs. Charlotte Philips." Leo's friend Hannah is sympathetic, though she seems at first ill suited to be Leo's romantic partner. Meanwhile, Leo latches on to Roberto Panconesi, a charismatic physics professor who promises to provide a philosophical framework making sense of the apparent randomness of life. The novel alternates between Leo's despair and a seemingly unconnected narrative in which Moritz Daniecki recounts the story of his life to his young son Fischel in 1938, a few weeks after Kristallnacht. Moritz's life has also been one of tragedy and loss. His incipient, innocent love for Lotte was interrupted by his service in World War I; after being captured by the Russians and imprisoned in Siberia, he made his way back to Poland and learned that Lotte was living in Vienna and engaged to be married. The reader must have faith that these deftly juxtaposed stories at some point will intersect - and toward the end of the novel they do, with satisfying resonance.While at times predictable and prosaic, the mutually reinforcing narratives ultimately convey debut novelist Scheinmann's message of the redemptive power of love. (Kirkus Reviews)

Sunday Express
'Really is as special as its press suggests...beautifully told...an amazingly assured debut'

Publishing News
'A tour de force ... mesmerizing'

Customer Reviews

A tender, passionate, well paced, skillfully written story ....
I've read a lot of the other reviews posted and this book seems pretty divisive - not what I expected. I personally loved it - I sobbed through the final chapters. It delivered on everything I expected. I'd call it truly an epic, one I will go back to read again and again. The different strands of the story are very carefully and patiently woven together. The characters are very skillfully portrayed - I felt so much tenderness for Leo's father. In all, this story was so very moving and beautifully written. Those 1 star reviewers must have hearts of made of granite!

Balanced Beautifully between plot and poetry
What I loved most about this book, is that fact that the author managed to write beautifully, and still weave a wonderful plot line, two in fact. I sometimes find books either have the plot, or the writing.

I love the way the two stories parallels eachother, where two men are going through different fights, in different times, over different landscapes

A Fantastic read, I've been suggesting it to all my friends, and even buying it for them just so I can guarantee they will read it

No page-turner
After reading the reviews I have to admit I was hugely disappointed by this book.

It started out promising enough, but I have to admit I was bored half way through and it's taken me near enough 6 weeks to complete!

Don't get me wrong, I loved the sentiment of this book, but felt it could've done with having 100 or so pages being dropped, those being most of the story of Leo & Eleni whom I didn't care about. It was the story of Moritz and Lotte which interested me. I understand that the author needed to find the connection between the characters at the end, but to be honest adding so much detail of Leo & Eleni didn't do the book any justice and I felt it was unnecessary.

All in all, this book was ok, but definately no page-turner. Therefore, I gave this book 2 stars, one for Moritz and one for Lotte who had an amazing love story which had to be told to prove that love really does exist and that some people will go to the ends of the earth to find it.