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Published Mar 2011
275 pages
Genre: Literary Fiction
Publication Information
Alex has spent the majority of his adult life between two very different women - and he can't make up his mind. Sonia, his wife and business partner, is everything a man would want. Intelligent, gorgeous, charming, and ambitious, she worked tirelessly alongside him to open their architecture firm and to build a life of luxury. But when the seven-year itch sets in, their exhaustion at working long hours coupled with their failed attempts at starting a family get the best of them. Alex soon finds himself kindling an affair with his college lover, Ivona. The young Polish woman who worked in a Catholic mission is the polar opposite of Sonia: dull, passive, taciturn, and plain. Despite having little in common with Ivona, Alex is inexplicably drawn to her while despising himself for it. Torn between his highbrow marriage and his lowbrow affair, Alex is stuck within a spiraling threesome. But when Ivona becomes pregnant, life takes an unexpected turn, and Alex is puzzled more than ever by the mysteries of his heart.
Peter Stamm, one of Switzerland’s most acclaimed writers, is at his best exploring the complexities of human relationships. Seven Years is a distinct, sobering, and bold novel about the impositions of happiness in the quest for love.
"Peter Stamm is not alone to want to expose the tensions within such a constellation, but the construction of his narrative is an undeniable success." - Le Monde (France)
"The search for love, the pursuit of happiness, the confusion of emotions, Peter Stamm revisits these eternal themes in an original novel that resonates deeply with all of us." - Elle (France)
"...[T]he novel's strength is found in the characters Stamm has created: powerfully imperfect, sometimes despicable, horribly conflicted, and always believable far beyond the archetypes that too often pop up in novels of marital ennui." - Publishers Weekly
"This touching novel is a tour of what makes love work and what tears love apart in the modern world." - Booklist
"A dynamic and taut novel that examines the conflicted heart in the confines of marriage and the perception of what love is." - ForeWord Reviews
This information about Seven Years was first featured
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Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Peter Stamm was born in 1963, in Weinfelden, Switzerland. He is the author of the novel Agnes, and numerous short stories and radio plays. His novels Unformed Landscape and On A Day Like This ,and the collection In Strange Gardens and Other Stories are available from Other Press. He lives outside of Zurich.
Michael Hofmann has translated the works of many writers, including Franz Kafka, Joseph Roth, and Peter Stephan Jungk. He is also the author of several books of poetry and a book of essays, Behind the Lines , and is the editor of the anthology Twentieth-Century German Poetry . He lives in Gainesville, Florida and London.
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