I enjoyed this, but don’t think I read it very well. It is quite a modest novel by Faulkes’ standards – no big themes, set in and around Vienna in the early 20th century revolving mainly around two men who don’t know each other and two women, ditto.
The women interested me more than the men, one of whom is a journalist /writer, the other a lawyer and political radical. The initial lover of the journalist is a French divorcee, passionate and sexual, and of the lawyer Lena, the daughter of a prostitute who follows her mother’s trade-in Vienna. Both women are passionate and draw emotion out of their more conventional partners.
There are also a lot of scenes set in a psychological hospital set in the mountains. Both men meet there and meet Lena who has slept with both of them in her former role.
Difficult to summarise – not sure whether this is me or the book.
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