A message from the author
THE PLEASURES OF READING. With Landscape of Farewell I had taken on a very challenging subject, and after finishing it felt the need for a complete break from writing. About a month after finishing, and believing myself to be safe from ideas for new books, I was reading Edward Said's wonderful essays on music in his little book Musical Elaborations, when I came across the following: "And that memory led me back to Louis Malle's film Les amants, constructed around the relatively innocuous tale of a nameless unknown man happening on a lonely wife (Jeanne Moreau) in the country, and then becoming her lover for a time before he moves on." The moment I read this I decided at once, with a feeling of great excitement, that my next book would be a simple love story. When I mentioned this to my daughter she said, "Love's not simple, Dad. You should know that." I did know it, of course, but my mind was made up.
By the time Lovesong was written it had turned into a more complicated story than I'd imagined it to be when the idea for it first came to me, and certainly more complicated than the simple story suggested by Edward Said in his reference to the Louis Malle film. But Lovesong remained nevertheless throughout the two years it took me to write it, and despite all the unforseen complications, a book that I wrote for no other reason than for my own pleasure. I hope you get as much pleasure from reading it as it gave me to write it. —Alex Miller
Listen to Alex Miller reading from Lovesong
About the book
Seeking shelter in a Parisian cafe from a sudden rainstorm, John Patterner meets the exotic Sabiha and his carefully mapped life changes forever.
Told with Alex Miller's distinctive clarity, intelligence and compassion, Lovesong is a pitch-perfect novel, a tender and enthralling story about the intimate lives of ordinary people. Read more
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Also available in ebook edition