A gorgeous tender modern classic about the complexities of love with an introduction from the
Booker-winning author John BanvilleStefan Valeriu a young Romanian student holidays alone in
the Alps where he soon becomes entangled in romantic relationships with three different women
who pass through his guesthouse. We follow Stefan after his return to Paris as he reflects on
the women in his life at times playing the lover and at others observing shrewdly from the
periphery.Women's four interlinked stories offer nuanced and deeply moving portraits of
romantic relationships in all their complexity from unrequited love and passionate affairs to
tepid marriages of convenience. In light elegant prose Mihail Sebastian widely regarded as
the greatest Romanian writer of the 20th century explores longing otherness empathy and
regret.'His prose is like something Chekov might have written - the same modesty candour and
subtleness of observation' Arthur Miller 'I love Sebastian's courage his lightness and his
wit' John Banville'Sebastian belongs in the pantheon of classic authors' New Statesman 'A minor
masterpiece of voice mood and emotion' Irish Times
