The Lovers
A Novel
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4.5 • 2 Ratings
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- $14.99
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
"A short novel of affecting elegance" –Vogue
"Cognetti... delivers a beautiful meditation on nature, love, and renewal." –Publishers Weekly
“A masterclass in high-altitude atmosphere, a sharp portrait of a community and a touching romance, all condensed into 200 pages.” –Financial Times
As a romance blooms in an isolated Italian Alpine town fate and free will shape the lives of many in this gorgeously written novel from the internationally bestselling author of The Eight Mountains, basis for the 2022 Cannes Jury Prize winning film
Fausto moves to Fontana Fredda—Cold Fountain—a small, remote village high in the mountains, having left Milan and an old love behind. Out of the way and off the beaten path, Fontana Fredda is a town that operates by its own rules, sense of time, and movement of seasons. Its citizens lead quiet but complex lives—and Fausto is attracted to that contrast. There’s Santorso, the former forest ranger who prefers the company of wolves to humans. Babette, the elegant ex-urbanite who, after a brief fling with a mountain man, opened a permanent fixture in the village: the little restaurant where Fausto works as a line cook, catering to visiting skiers. And it is there where he meets Silvia, the new waitress. Young, cheerful, with the air of a world traveler, the two quickly become friends, and so much more.
When winter ends, Fausto and Silvia part ways, and return to their old lives to tie up loose ends. Fausto eventually goes back to Fontana Fredda to find Silvia, only to learn that she has found a summer job in a nearby glacier. There, among Italy’s peaceful and picturesque nature, Silvia meets a Nepalese mountain guide who introduces her to the enigmatic teachings of the Buddha. Meanwhile, Fausto finds work cooking for a crew of lumberjacks, and makes regular visits up by Silvia.
With the turn of seasons, Fausto and Silvia’s relationship is profoundly changed by the winds of time.Life, as they discover, contains endless possibilities.
Structured in short, distilled chapters, Paolo Cognetti’s luminous, atmospheric novel offers an elegant portrait of a budding romance between two kindred, but different spirits united by their attraction to an isolated landscape. Empathetic, achingly evocative, and buoyed by an affection for the natural world, it is a beautiful meditation on our infinite search to understand our place in the universe.
Translated from the Italian by Stash Luczkiw
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Cognetti (The Eight Mountains) delivers a beautiful meditation on nature, love, and renewal in the Alps. A 40-year-old writer, Fausto, separates from his wife and leaves Milan for the Fontana Fredda mountains where he takes a job at a restaurant called Babette's Feast, the namesake of its fellow city transplant owner, who runs the place after divorcing her former"mountain man" husband, Santorso, who returns occasionally to dine there. Silvia, a 27-year-old waitress Cognetti describes as having "the air of a world traveler," catches his eye and eventually they become lovers. Drawing on the naturalism of Jack London (Fausto is a fan), Cognetti describes the landscape as a witness to the whims of fate as the lovers break apart ("And around Fontana Fredda the mountains existed, altogether indifferent to the dreams of these human beings, and would continue to exist when they woke up"). Luczkiw acknowledges the novel's surface-level simplicity in a translator's note, and indeed the premise might cause readers' eyes to roll, but Cognetti adds depth by making the natural world a character of its own and by setting up an intriguing mirror effect between the two couples. This atmospheric story offers plenty of surprises.
