Elena

A man with no name, whose days are empty, spends a whole year from spring onwards on a park bench, waiting to glimpse a beautiful young woman who passes there daily on her way to her university classes. Whether she appears decides his mood. He trails her at a distance, discovers her name, Elena, from a book she forgot in a café, and works out where she lives. In summer she takes a job cleaning rooms at a hotel on an island, and his longing sends him after her. Nothing in the city is named, little happens, and only the narrator takes on any shape in this pared-down story of a love that runs in one direction.

AI-generated summary

About the book

Form

Novella

Length

126 pages in the original

Genres

Love (assigned by AI)

First published

2003 by Otava

Author's age

31 when first published

ISBN

9789511189565 (original)