For centuries, poets have argued that unrequited love is love in its strongest form. From Afar is a timeless tale of Morgan Stanfield’s search for love in the far northern city of Saint Petersburg, Russia. Leaving the warm climate of Santa Barbara, he embarks on a four-day odyssey where he encounters a Russian beauty, a prostitute, a wise old babushka, an American chauvinist, intellectuals, the Russian mafia, and the ‘face’ of love, and comes to know how love from a distance can be more captivating than love close on hand.
What did I think?
As soon
as I read about the intertwined skeletons at the beginning I knew I
was going to love this book. It’s not at all what I expected which
is what makes it so brilliant.
This is
excellent writing, I was completely engrossed in Morgan’s Russian
adventure and raced through this book in no time. Morgan seems to be
quite an unlucky guy, so there are many moments of hilarity when his
visit to Russia doesn’t go as planned. I really admired him when
he chose one of the Russian ladies to correspond with, when most of
the other American men he meets on the plane were hedging their bets
by corresponding with lots of women. It just shows how loyal and
monogamous he intended to be right from the start, and gives all
single ladies hope that there are some genuinely nice guys out there.
Near the end of his trip, Morgan seemed right at home in Saint
Petersburg and
it seemed only right that he, as a Californian, experienced a Russian
snowfall. The writing was so beautiful that I could almost feel the
snowflakes on my face. I loved the stark contrast between the
poverty of the residential areas and the beauty of the tourist sites. I’ll not spoil the story by giving any more of it away but it’s really worth reading.
This was clearly very well researched and at the end of the book I found myself heading off to google to find out more about some of the sites mentioned, e.g. Bridge of Kisses, Church of the Spilt Blood, The Hermitage Museum, Mikhailovsky Castle and the Palace Square, to name but a few. Perhaps not a conventional way to meet your future partner but love knows no bounds and rather philosophically we are reminded that “Half the distance around the earth is only two centimeters on a map”.
This was clearly very well researched and at the end of the book I found myself heading off to google to find out more about some of the sites mentioned, e.g. Bridge of Kisses, Church of the Spilt Blood, The Hermitage Museum, Mikhailovsky Castle and the Palace Square, to name but a few. Perhaps not a conventional way to meet your future partner but love knows no bounds and rather philosophically we are reminded that “Half the distance around the earth is only two centimeters on a map”.
A wonderful read that reminds us to follow our heart wherever it may lead.
My rating:
Buy it from Amazon
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