Suddenly, Love Audiobook By Aharon Appelfeld cover art

Suddenly, Love

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Suddenly, Love

By: Aharon Appelfeld
Narrated by: Neil Shah
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Ernst is a gruff seventy-year-old Red Army veteran. Retired, he lives alone and spends his time laboring over his unpublished novels. Irena, in her mid-thirties, has been taking care of Ernst since his surgery two years earlier. Quiet and shy, Irena is in awe of Ernst's intellect. And as the months pass, Ernst comes to depend on the gentle young woman who runs his house. But Ernst's writing gives him no satisfaction, and he is haunted by his Communist past. He seems to lose the will to live. But this is something Irena will not allow. As she becomes an important part of his life, Ernst regains his sense of self and discovers, to his amazement, that Irena is in love with him. And, even more astonishing, he realizes that he is in love with her, too.

©2014 Aharon Appelfeld (P)2014 Dreamscape Media, LLC Jewish World Literature

Critic reviews

Starred review. "A quiet, moving, and utterly convincing story about the growing love between an aging author and his companion... Appelfeld writes simply but gorgeously about important things, and the translation is particularly graceful and supple." ( Kirkus Reviews)
"A quiet, contemplative story about empathy, connection, and finding love when you least expect it. Readers of Amos Oz and A. B. Yehoshua will enjoy Appelfeld’s storytelling." ( Library Journal)
"This compact novel movingly embraces the themes of love, faith, and redemption between two disparate Jewish generations... Appelfeld tells the affecting tale in clean, spare prose." ( Publishers Weekly)
All stars
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I like this book alot. Good story and narration. Uplifting overall. The narrator was very good.

Good Story

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When a book challenges me I know that it is generally a good one. I did not particularly like the characters, nor did I relate to the emotions between them, but I did feel that this book opened a door to places that are unfamiliar to me, and in a rhythmic and enchanting way. Appelfeld tried hard to give the simplistic Irena layers and complexity, but I don't think he executed it so much. It was evident to me that the consciousness of women is foreign to him. Nevertheless, monotony and the tonal hopelessness is shaken periodically back to life by stunning details and poetic ruminations that are precise, short and sweet.

I was very displeased by the non-Jewish narrator's pronunciation of Jewish names, holidays and objects. It made the whole story sound foreign, which it's not for me (being a Jewish Israeli Ashkenazi woman), and was just very annoying. I would have much preferred a Jewish narrator who could tell the story with a deeper understanding and for whom the words could slip effortlessly off the tongue.

A story that nestles in you

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