Touch, Olaf Olafsson
Touch, Olaf Olafsson
List: $23.99 | Sale: $16.79
Club: $11.99

Touch
A Novel

Author: Olaf Olafsson

Narrator: Peter Noble

Unabridged: 7 hr 10 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Ecco

Published: 08/16/2022


Synopsis

The inspiration for a film directed, written and produced by Baltasar Kormákur, co-written by Olaf Olafsson. ""Delicate, absorbing...as satisfying as it is moving."" — VogueA mesmerizing, panoramic story of one man’s search to find a lover who suddenly disappeared decades beforeWhen the pandemic hits, Kristofer is forced to shutter his successful restaurant in Reykjavik, sending him into a spiral of uncertainty, even as his memory seems to be failing. But an uncanny bolt from the blue—a message from Miko Nakamura, a woman whom he’d known in the sixties when they were students in London—both inspires and rattles him, as he is drawn inexorably back into a love story that has marked him for life. Even as the pandemic upends his world, Kristofer finds himself pulled toward an answer to the mystery of Miko’s sudden departure decades before, compelling him to travel to London and Japan as the virus threatens to shut everything down.A heart-wrenching love story and an absorbing mystery, Touch delves into the secrets of the past to explore the hidden lives that we all possess, the pain and beauty of our past loves and friendships that continue to leave their mark on us. Searching and lyrically rendered by acclaimed author Olaf Olafsson, Touch is a stunning tribute to the weight of history and the complexities of the human heart. 

About Olaf Olafsson

Olaf Olafsson was born in Reykjavik, Iceland, in 1962. He studied physics as a Wien scholar at Brandeis University. He is the author of six previous novels, The Journey Home, Absolution, Walking into the Night, Restoration, One Station Away, and The Sacrament, and a story collection, Valentines. He spends his time in New York City, Sag Harbor, and Reykjavik.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Jola

A classy, old-school love story, told so subtly and elegantly that I kept turning a blind eye to some melodramatic vibes and cliches, which normally would have annoyed me, and to the fact that the narrator's emotions were a bit sugar-coated. On the one hand, I loved Kristófer's calm while reconnecti......more

Goodreads review by Ruben

I hadn't planned to read this Icelandic novel so soon (it only comes out in August 2022) but after peeking at the first few pages I just couldn't stop. The structure of many short 4-5 page chapters makes you cannot put it away. Set in the early days of the pandemic, 75-year old Kristofer decides it's......more

Goodreads review by Carol

I enjoyed this author's last novel, The Sacrament. Both stories follow a similar format with flashbacks over past time periods. Throughout the novel, the narrator, Kristófer Hannesson reminisces about an event in his life when he had a brief love affair with Miko, a Japanese woman who disappeared s......more