The Lovers

The Lovers (2010) by Vendela Vida. Another oddly disappointing book from Vida, who is a good writer but whose books often seem to have no destination. In this one, a woman takes a brief vacation in Turkey and becomes disoriented by the foreign culture she encounters. A boy she befriends drowns, and somehow she blames herself for his death. She travels by bus to visit his family and experiences various aspects of Turkish city life. During all this activity, she interjects memories of her dead husband, Peter, and her twin children, Matt and Aurelia. The memories of Aurelia are the most interesting, and I wish the book had been about Aurelia. In a way, it is. Judging from the blurbs on the back of the book, this is a great novel and I have missed something. So it goes. Grade: B