“Lily King is one of our great literary treasures.”—Madeline MillerFrom the New York Times bestselling author of Writers & Lovers comes a magnificent and intimate new novel of desire, friendship, loss, and the lasting impact of first loveYou knew I’d write a book about you someday.Our narrator understands good love stories—their secrets and subtext, their highs and their free falls. But her greatest love story, the one she lived, never followed the simple rules.In the fall of her senior year of college, she meets two star students from her 17th-Century Lit class: Sam and Yash. Best friends living off campus in the elegant house of a professor on sabbatical, the boys invite her into their intoxicating world of academic fervor, rapid-fire banter and raucous card games. They nickname her Jordan, and she quickly discovers the pleasures of friendship, love and her own intellectual ambition. Youthful passion is unpredictable though, and she soon finds herself at the center of a charged and intricate triangle. As graduation comes and goes, choices made will alter these three lives forever.Decades later, Jordan is living the life she dreamed of, and the vulnerable days of her youth seem comfortably behind her. But when a surprise visit and unexpected news brings the past crashing into the present, she returns to a world she left behind and is forced to confront the decisions and deceptions of her younger self.Written with the superb wit and emotional sensitivity fans and critics of Lily King have come to adore, Heart the Lover is a deeply moving story that celebrates love, friendship, and the transformative nature of forgiveness. Wise, unforgettable, and with a delightful connective thread to Writers & Lovers, this is King at her very best, affirming her as a masterful chronicler of the human experience and one of the finest novelists at work today.
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Heart the Lover
By Lily King
“Lily King is one of our great literary treasures.”—Madeline MillerFrom the New York Times bestselling author of Writers & Lovers comes a magnificent and intimate new novel of desire, friendship, loss, and the lasting impact of first loveYou knew I’d write a book about you someday.Our narrator understands good love stories—their secrets and subtext, their highs and their free falls. But her greatest love story, the one she lived, never followed the simple rules.In the fall of her senior year of college, she meets two star students from her 17th-Century Lit class: Sam and Yash. Best friends living off campus in the elegant house of a professor on sabbatical, the boys invite her into their intoxicating world of academic fervor, rapid-fire banter and raucous card games. They nickname her Jordan, and she quickly discovers the pleasures of friendship, love and her own intellectual ambition. Youthful passion is unpredictable though, and she soon finds herself at the center of a charged and intricate triangle. As graduation comes and goes, choices made will alter these three lives forever.Decades later, Jordan is living the life she dreamed of, and the vulnerable days of her youth seem comfortably behind her. But when a surprise visit and unexpected news brings the past crashing into the present, she returns to a world she left behind and is forced to confront the decisions and deceptions of her younger self.Written with the superb wit and emotional sensitivity fans and critics of Lily King have come to adore, Heart the Lover is a deeply moving story that celebrates love, friendship, and the transformative nature of forgiveness. Wise, unforgettable, and with a delightful connective thread to Writers & Lovers, this is King at her very best, affirming her as a masterful chronicler of the human experience and one of the finest novelists at work today.
Popular Reviews(21)
Reviewed by TeresaRead it in three day and cried all of yesterday. This touched open wounds and churned them up even more. Kings writing style is so simple (not the kind of poetic prose that’s my usual go to) but it draws you in and overpowers you. Beautifully gut wrenching and real. Their relationship, the fear of the future that ends it. The omnipresence of grief and how you’re supposed to stay present when someone that was right there with you is gone??? I’m still without words…
Reviewed by TiaManche Geschichten enden, aber die Frage, was hätte sein können, bleibt. Heart the Lover erzählt von Liebe, verpassten Möglichkeiten und diesem ewigen „Was wäre, wenn?“. Besonders Lily Kings feinfühligen, wunderschönen Schreibstil mochte ich sehr, wie eigentlich immer bei ihr. Gerade die zweite Hälfte hat mich dann emotional ziemlich unerwartet erwischt und war stellenweise fast schwer auszuhalten. Eine sehr berührende, aber auch unglaublich traurige und bedrückende Geschichte, für die man definitiv in der richtigen Stimmung sein sollte.
Reviewed by LeniEine grandiose Liebesgeschichte, die sehr bewegend beschrieben wird. Es ist ein ganz besonderes Buch, dass alle mitnimmt, die Dramatik mögen.
Reviewed by MerlitoI feel hollow
Reviewed by MerleWas wäre gewesen, wenn? Ein wunderschöner, melancholischer Roman über die erste große Liebe, verpasste Chancen und richtige, oder vielleicht falsche, Zeitpunkte. Besonders berührt hat mich die Frage, wie sehr manche Menschen uns ein Leben lang prägen können, auch wenn wir unser Leben letztendlich ohne sie führen. Durch die Zeitsprünge wird dabei spürbar, wie vergänglich manche Möglichkeiten sind und wie endgültig Entscheidungen irgendwann werden können, immer mit der Frage im Hinterkopf, ob ein anderer Weg deshalb automatisch der falsche gewesen sein muss. Gleichzeitig ist das Buch unglaublich angenehm und kurzweilig geschrieben: Die besondere Erzählweise verändert sich immer wieder, bleibt dabei aber nahbar und leicht zu verfolgen. Ein bittersüßes Buch, das mich am Ende ziemlich emotional zurückgelassen hat.