Book Summary and Reviews of Long Distance by Aysegül Savas

Long Distance by Aysegül Savas

Long Distance

Stories

by Aysegül Savas

  • Critics' Consensus (5):
  • Published:
  • Jul 2025, 240 pages
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About this book

Book Summary

Acclaimed author of The Anthropologists and master of the short story form Aysegul Savas' acute and tender first collection about the distances we keep, and those we try to close, in the age of connectivity.

A researcher abroad in Rome eagerly awaits a visit from her long distance lover, only to find he is not the same man she remembers. An expat meets a childhood friend on a layover and is dismayed by her unexpected contentment. A newly pregnant woman considers the American taboo of sharing the news too soon, but can't resist when an opportunity comes to patch up a damaged friendship.

Long Distance showcases Savas's devastating talent for the short story. Her shrewd encapsulations of contemporary life often center on characters displaced more by choice than circumstance, characters both determined to install themselves in new lives and preoccupied with the people they've left behind.

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Reviews

Media Reviews

"Alliances and affections shift, understandings waver, and beliefs are challenged in this collection of stories which individually and collectively convey the difficulties of maintaining connections in a fractured world. Subtle but clearly drawn sketches of the ties that bind and that, inevitably, come undone." —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"Savaş captures the complexities of desire and loss in this gorgeous collection...With unsparing grace, Savaş tenderly illustrates the struggles of her characters as they seek fulfillment. There's much to love in these brilliant stories." —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"[Savas] portrays millennials on the cusp of the next phase in their lives, whether that's buying a home or exploring new relationships. Populating these tales are richly textured characters struggling to make room for new goalposts while accommodating the old...The characters may be vulnerable, but they are never overwrought, a balancing act Savas executes flawlessly." —Booklist (starred review)

This information about Long Distance was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

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Author Information

Aysegül Savas Author Biography

Aysegül Savas is the author of the acclaimed novels Walking on the Ceiling and White on White. Her work has been translated into six languages and has appeared in the New Yorker, the Paris Review, Granta, and elsewhere. She lives in Paris.

Author Interview

Name Pronunciation
Aysegül Savas: EYE-shi-gool sha-VAS

Other books by Aysegül Savas at BookBrowse
  • The Anthropologists jacket
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