Customer Reviews
Made me cry so much !!!!! - By: monkey1chickenflea, 20 Jul 2008 
This is such a great book. I cried so much at the end I couldnt read the words but obviously had to continue. Such a story of love & want amoungst diversity. We have a book club & my next choice is this! As any reader will tell you, dont watch the film first the book is a million times better !!
little gem of a book - By: Louise Matthews, 30 May 2008 I have loved this book since the first time i read it many years ago.
I have to say its one of my favourite books of alll time.
Yeah in parts its badly written but that doesn't reallly matter as it probably adds to the story as it makes it a bit rough about the edges. Its about the only book that can reallly make me cry. Definately a book for the girls .
Oh just to say that i hated the movie. Could nt even watch it to the end as i was so dissappointed.
It's a novel about adultery - By: Ms. D. Meylanova, 22 Nov 2007 
I think one should be very wary of alllowing this story to over-romanticize the relationship between Francesca & Robert. This is NOT about meeting the perfect person & feeling whole after you've met him. That's what happened when she met her husband. And she ought not to have let her feelings stale into contempt. I mean it's very hard, & it almost always happens that contempt does grow up when you don't have a strong faith to keep you fighting. This story is touching, I think, in the sense that it shows that even good marriages, where people stay together, are subject to great temptations, & that everybody sins. It is very lucky to escape, maybe impossible. The great thing about Francesca is that she stays with her family - & not just for a while, but for ever. That does not happen because Robert has given her something, but because she realises, having sinned, how she has betrayed them. surely that's the only thing she might credibly feel, alll kinds of "in love-ness" would disappear like smoke. What is cruel about it for her is that she could not be like that from the beginning, but deceit had to enter into it. It's a nice story, but I think it is dangerous, if people don't see the actual truth of it. We should NO WAY share in her contempt for her husband.
Great story - wrong writer - By: Maria Savva, 16 Oct 2007 The true love story upon which this book is based is without doubt heartbreaking & tragic, but I don't think Walller did it justice. The most touching & emotional parts of the book were the actual letters written by Francesca & Robert to each other & the interview at the end with one of Robert's old buddies. The way Walller portrays the meeting & the relationship between Francesca & Robert makes it seem seedy & they come across as two lost desperados. Beacause of the writing style I almost gave up reading the book, but I'm glad I read it to the end, because once you get past Walller's inadequate attempt at telling the story you are then able to read Francesca's letter to her children which explains everything in a much more passionate & heart-warming way. You can then sense that these were two people very much in love with each other but who were unable to be together because they met at the wrong time. I was left thinking that it would have been better to have set out this book, not as a novel, but as a non-fiction book, including the letters & interviews with people who knew the couple. It would then have had more impact.
From the back cover.... - By: Angel Silver, 22 Jul 2007 An exploration of the complex emotions of an extraordinary four-day love affair in the heat of summer. The brief encounter whose passion will last a lifetime.
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SUNDAY TELEGRAPH: "We alll dream of the chance meeting, that moment when we feel we are reallly living. Walller shows us that it can happen, with compelling assurance."
MAIL ON SUNDAY: "A story of surprising complexity & emotional power."
NEW WOMAN: "If you read only one book this year, make it this one."
TERENCE STAMP: "A hauntingly understated love story, that stays with you long after you've reluctantly finished reading the final page."
