Love Virtually

Just read an ARC of Daniel Glattauer's Love Virtually, set to release (in the U.S.) in April. It seems that the book has been a big bestseller in Europe, and I can see why. Written in epistolary format (via letters, or in this case email. I think the most famous example of this style is Bram Stoker's Dracula.) Love Virtually is the story of a love affair between two people who've never met. An accidental, virtual meeting sparks a year long correspondance between a single man and a married woman. Through the whole book you are kept on pins and needles, wondering, will they ever meet? And if they meet, will the magic die??? 


I cannot possibly say more about the plot without destroying some part of its discovery for a potential reader. Just read it. It's engrossing, it's touching and it's refreshingly real in an age where The Shop Around the Corner -esque love affairs aren't entirely unheard of. Also, it's a quick read, and there is never a "slow" part where the author has to describe the color of someone's hair or the sound of a door creaking, or whatever. I love epistolary stories because they deliver a delicious lack details. You only know what the characters know. You have only what they tell each other and nothing more. It's all a big tease really. I love a good tease.

A bit of advice, though. If you are the type who reads the ending first....

1.) You will burn in literary hell for your sins. (Or at least you would if I were literary god.)
2.) Don't do it with this book!!!! You will ruin it! RUIN IT!!!!!
3.) I advise you to ask a reliably closed mouth acquaintance to tape the last few pages to the back cover of the book.

And fifteen minutes after I finished reading it, the heart palpitations were slowing and evening out to a normal, steady rhythm; and then I noticed the tiny print on the back of the ARC that promises a sequel in 2011. I thought it was over, but I will gladly take more. Please, don't tell me. I am sure that I could go searching and find out what happens in the next book. I think it's already been released in Europe. But I really don't want to know. I just want to see where it takes me. And that's kind of the whole point of this book.

6 (yes. SIX.) toes.