Eight White Nights - by André Aciman (Paperback)

About the Book

A man in his late twenties goes to a large Christmas party in Manhattan where a woman introduces herself with three words: "I am Clara." Over the following seven days, they meet every evening at the same cinema. Overwhelmed yet cautious, he treads softly and won't hazard a move. The tension between them builds gradually, marked by ambivalence, hope, and distrust. They move both closer together and farther apart, culminating on New Year's Eve in a final scene charged with magic and the promise of renewal.

Book Synopsis

A LUSHLY ROMANTIC NOVEL FROM THE AUTHOR OF CALL ME BY YOUR NAME

A young man goes to a Christmas party in upper Manhattan where a woman introduces herself with three simple words: "I am Clara." Over the following seven days, they meet every evening at the cinema. Overwhelmed yet cautious, he treads softly. The tension between them builds gradually--marked by ambivalence, hope, and distrust--culminating in a final scene on New Year's Eve charged with magic and the passion. André Aciman yet again explores human emotion with uncompromising accuracy in this piercing new novel. Eight White Nights is a brilliant performance from a master prose stylist.

Review Quotes

"Eight White Nights ... envelop[s] the reader in its wintry spell." --Jennifer Egan, The New York Times (Editors' Choice)

"A modern New York City fairy tale." --Time Out (New York)

"A bravura re-creation of all the feints and counterfeints, yearnings and frustrations, of modern courtship. It possesses the psychological acuity and intensity one associates not just with Proust but also with Dostoyevsky." --Michael Dirda, The New York Review of Books

"Psychologically charged, deeply Dostoyevskian . . . original to the core. Then again, Aciman has never failed to be original. Nor is he a stranger to questions of love. " --Marie Arana, The Washington Post

"Aciman brilliantly continues his examination into the minefield of longing and attraction. . . . For anyone who's ever smarted from the sharp dreamlike unreality of those obsessive early stages of young love, it's a blistering quick trip down the rabbit hole." --Karen Campbell, The Boston Globe

About the Author

ANDRÉ ACIMAN is the author of Call Me by Your Name, Out of Egypt, and False Papers, and is the editor of The Proust Project (all published by FSG). He teaches comparative literature at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. He lives with his wife and family in Manhattan.