Skip to product information
1 of 1

If Only

If Only

Paperback

Regular price £11.14
Regular price Sale price £11.14

Join our rewards scheme and earn 33 reward points on this purchase!

Earn 33 points on this!

Sign in or Sign up!
View full details
  • Release Date: 17/09/2024
  • Barcode: 9781839768880
  • Genre: Fiction
  • Imprint: Verso Books
  • Publisher: Verso Books
If Only

If Only

Collapsible content

DESCRIPTION

NYPL's Best Books of 2024

A groundbreaking, potent novel about the destructive force of romantic love from award-winning writer Vigdis Hjorth
A relatively young woman, aged thirty. She married in her early twenties, had two children. It is winter. January and minus 14°C, white, frosty mist around the parked car, around the spruces, the mailbox on its post, but higher up the sky is blue, clear, the sun has come back. She has written in her diary that she is waiting for the heartbreak that will turn her into her true self. She has an impending sense of doom or possibly her own death.

Can passion be mistaken for love? When Ida meets Arnold, also married, at a conference, she impulsively invites him to share her bed. She returns home, already half-obsessed, and the dissolution of her marriage and break-up of her family pass almost without her noticing. Arnold has a more relaxed attitude toward the affair. But neither his coolness nor the alarming talk she hears about him can dampen her desire. When she finally has Arnold for herself, all the surface niceties and indulgences they enjoy - travel, sex, beers for breakfast and cocktails for dinner - can't sustain the sweetness of the fantasy. Their mounting jealousies and insecurities metastasize, resulting in violence and addiction.

In urgent prose, with layers of candid and vivid detail, Hjorth shows just how devastating love can be when it binds the wrong people.

ADDITIONAL DETAILS

  • Contributor: Charlotte Barslund (Translated by)
  • Translator: Charlotte Barslund
  • DELIVERY & RETURNS

    UK Delivery:

    • Free delivery on all orders of £10 or more.
    • £1.49 delivery fee on orders below £10.
    • UK orders are shipped via Royal Mail 2nd Class.

    International Delivery:

    • Flat rate delivery charges vary by country.

    Dispatch and Delivery Times:

    • All orders are shipped from our warehouse in Northampton, UK within 48 hours of receipt during working hours.
    • UK mainland orders typically arrive within 3-5 working days via Royal Mail 2nd Class.
    • International estimated delivery times:
    • Europe & Channel Islands: 7 to 10 working days
    • USA: 7 to 15 working days
    • Rest of the World: 9 to 21 working days

    View our full delivery infomation here.

    • OVER

      2 MILLION PRODUCTS

    • 60 MILLION CUSTOMERS

      ACROSS 190 COUNTRIES