Walking Into the Night - Softcover

Olafsson, Olaf

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1400034809 ISBN 13: 9781400034802

Publisher: Anchor, 2004

Synopsis

As butler to William Randolph Hearst at San Simeon castle, Christian Benediktsson lives quietly, almost invisibly. He completes his tasks efficiently and with aplomb, catering to the whims of the volatile Chief and overseeing the running of the hectic household. Privy to the goings-on of the celebrity guests who visit as well as to Hearst’s intimate relationship with his mistress, the actress Marion Davies, he is the picture of discretion. An extremely private man, those around him know nothing of him or his life. And so it is in his thoughts and in unsent letters to his wife back in Iceland that we witness the unraveling of his former life, which began when he abandoned her and their children for an actress in New York City. Once a successful businessman, he erases his past and himself after a sudden tragic death and his financial ruin, the result of a jilted lover’s vengeance. Walking into the Night is a stunning portrait of a man wrestling with guilt and secret passions.

About this title

From the Back Cover:

Praise for The Journey Home by Olaf Olafsson

“Compelling . . . Akin to Thomas Mann . . . An astonishing story of confusion, loss, denial. Olafsson has created a woman of such complexity and uncalculated charm that he will leave readers wishing that they could actually meet her before it’s too late.”
—Chicago Sun-Times

“An exceptional novel . . . Engrossing . . . A tremendous accomplishment [and a] great triumph of novelistic imagination.”
—The Observer (London)

“Soulful and thoughtful . . . An impressively mature and wide-ranging book, both geographically and emotionally.”
—New York Times Book Review

“Undeniably graceful . . . It is vulnerability that makes The Journey Home so complete and appealing.”
—Los Angeles Times Book Review

“With masterful skill and elegant prose, Olafsson gradually reveals his fierce heroine and her complicated story. The Journey Home is an eerie, suspenseful novel, one that delivers surprises until the very last beautiful page and that happily remains with the reader long after that.”
—Margot Livesey, author of Criminals and The Missing World

About the Author:

Olaf Olafsson was born in Reykjavik, Iceland, in 1962, and studied physics as a Wien Scholar at Brandeis University. He is the author of two previous novels, The Journey Home and Absolution, which have been translated into fourteen languages. He lives in New York with his wife and two sons.

About this edition

• Publisher: Anchor
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 1400034809
• ISBN 13: 9781400034802
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 272