The Lovers

'I missed a train stop twice on the same journey while reading it. That's how distractingly good it is.' -- Viv Groskop, Independent on Sunday

Yvonne is newly widowed, her children grown. Hoping to revisit memories of a happier time, she travels to Turkey. Despite the sand and sea, Yvonne's memories of her past are overwhelming and she clings to a newfound friendship with Ahmet, a local boy who makes his living as a shell collector.

With Ahmet as her guide, Yvonne finally begins to enjoy the shimmering waters and relaxed pace of the Turkish coast. But when a devastating accident suddenly upends her hard-won peace, she finds her life thrown into chaos and with it her fragile sense of belonging.



Vendela Vida is the author of the acclaimed novels

And Now You Can Go and

Let the Northern Lights Erase Your Name. She is a founding editor of the

Believer magazine, and the editor of

The Believer Book of Writers Talking to Writers. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband and children.



Amazing reviews for The Lovers on hardback publication: 'Vida is capable of taking the breath away with her cool treatment of the unkind twists of one woman's fate.' Scotland on Sunday

'Thoughtful and evocative...I defy any reader not to cry at the ending' Observer

'Excellent... A moving work on the tumbling, overwhelming emotions.' Independent

'A stingingly acute portrait of grief, a moving meditation on love and a page-turning adventure.' Zoë Heller

'Masterful... I was so enthralled by the grief, the sticky and sandy details... that I didn't realize how deep in I was. I read the last page with a tearful gasp.'