Love Virtually by Daniel Glattauer

I feel I should warn you that this is an adult novel.

I’m going to be posting here and there about grown-up books and I’m not entirely sure how to introduce them.  I know that a post from me normally means kids/teens. So how do I change tack? Should I just put a warning at the top?  But then, I think that sounds like I’m warning you away from the novel and that might just not be the case.  I also think it looks like I’m saying it’s an “Adult” novel in the sort of X-Rated book way… and I probably wouldn’t be reviewing any of my favourites of those (too much of a minefield describing how it made me feel…!!!).

Anyway, I think the above is fair warning, don’t you?

Love Virtually has been a huge hit in the original German, selling over a million copies.  This English translation is due to be released on 3rd February. Not having read too many translations, I’m not sure if you’re supposed to notice… I didn’t.

This is a love story for the 21st Century.  It is an epistolary novel but instead of the old fashioned pen and ink, the protagonists communicate via email.  Leo is on the receiving end of an email from Emmi who is writing to cancel her magazine subscription.  Only he’s not the magazine.  If only we could all end up meeting Mr Right by mistyping an email address.  Their correspondence continues until they are truly caught up in each others lives.  All taking place via email.

The trouble is… Emmi is happily married. Or so she professes.  I have my doubts that such a wondrously happily married woman would write some of the things she does late at night with the help of a glass or two of wine.  But she is instant.

They make a plan to meet.  Only the plan doesn’t include actually making a rendezvous.  They have to be in the same cafe, at the same time and see if they can guess who each other are.   I guess at this point, the blatantly forward side of me was screaming, “oh for goodness sake, just grow up and get it on!”  On the other hand, it was very romantic.  (I’m just a little bit perplexed at the serendipity of the two of them meeting on the World Wide Web and without preamble knowing they both lived in the same city… but let’s gloss over that part.)

There was a touch of the voyeurism in the reading of Love Virtually.  I felt as though I was rifling through someone’s knicker drawer and prying into their secret correspondence in a  way I’ve never felt reading a traditionally written novel.  And I have to say, I really, really enjoyed this aspect. (Slightly concerned as to what this says about me :))

Love Virtually is incredibly well written.  There is nothing to provide setting, place, a sense of the bustle of everyday life.  These are all emails.  A whole book of them.  And yet, I was totally immersed in this story.  Yes, I reached points where I was infuriated by Emmi’s unreasonable behaviour, and by Leo’s constant patience with her.  I was frustrated by the almost teenage coyness and lack of real-life action despite them both baring their souls with words. But this seems important.  The way I was made to feel by this novel is a way I’ve rarely felt with other romantic novels where the pay-offs come at the appropriate times. This was a whole new reading experience and by the denouement, I found I had thoroughly enjoyed the whole frustrating ride.

I highly recommend Love Virtually.  There are some laughs, some fabulous moments of tenderness and understanding and an ending that seems wholly right for the situation.  Read it, you won’t be disappointed.

(P.S… ignore the cover, it’s awful – but then that often happens. It’s no reflection on the story!)

About Eve Harvey

Eve Harvey is a bookaholic. She is forever to be found with her nose in a book. If there are none around then newspapers, magazines, the back of cereal packets, road signs or the tiny washing labels found on the seams of jumpers will do. Eve used to have full time job as a children's bookseller and she was the very first Waterstone's Children's Expert Bookseller in Scotland. Her first love was definitely literature for children and teens, about which she has nerd-level knowledge. However she has since become involved in grown-up books and has co-written her first adult novel with Cath Murphy. Eve and Cath Podcast, blog and have far too much fun on their website Domestic Hell. Eve lives in a field just outside Edinburgh in Scotland with her daughter and son and two dogs and two rabbits. She also has some tanks of tropical fish and vows one day to start up a marine aquarium. And the day she signs her very first publishing deal she is going to celebrate by buying a pair of Horsefields tortoises. You can find Eve through her Agent, Ella Kahn at DKW Literary Agency. She's also on Twitter or on her website : EveHarvey.com

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