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Letters to the End of Love
THREE STORIES, THREE SECRETS, THREE MARRIAGES.
In a coastal village in Cork in 1969, a Russian painter and his Irish novelist wife write letters to one another as they try to come to terms with a fatal illness.
On Australia's west coast in 2011, a bookseller writes to her estranged partner in an attempt to understand what has happened to their relationship.
In Bournemouth in 1948, a retired English doctor writes to the love of his life, a German artist he lived with in Vienna during the 1930s.
The simple domestic lives of these three couples are set against conversations about intimacy, art, war and loss. Told in a series of unforgettable letters, this is a novel about love and what it means when it might be coming to an end.
In a coastal village in Cork in 1969, a Russian painter and his Irish novelist wife write letters to one another as they try to come to terms with a fatal illness.
On Australia's west coast in 2011, a bookseller writes to her estranged partner in an attempt to understand what has happened to their relationship.
In Bournemouth in 1948, a retired English doctor writes to the love of his life, a German artist he lived with in Vienna during the 1930s.
The simple domestic lives of these three couples are set against conversations about intimacy, art, war and loss. Told in a series of unforgettable letters, this is a novel about love and what it means when it might be coming to an end.
241 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2013
4 people are currently reading
332 people want to read
About the author
Yvette Walker
5Ìýbooks23ÌýfollowersYvette Walker is an Australian writer. Her first novel Letters to the End of Love was published by University of Queensland Press in April 2013. Letters To The End of Love was shortlisted for the 2014 NSW Premier's Literary Awards (Glenda Adams Award for New Writing). Yvette won a 2014 WA Premiers Book Award (Emerging WA Writer) for the novel. She is currently working on her second book.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 40 reviews
July 4, 2013
This is one of the most beautiful and deeply moving books I have read in a long time.
The beauty of the writing calls to mind Michael Ondaatje's earlier works and Anne Michaels' Fugitive Pieces. The intensity of the passion made me think of a Jeanette Winterson book I read many years ago - perhaps 'Written on the Body'.
Having said that, Walker has a voice all her own. In fact, this novel, is polyphonic, in that it incorporates the voices of 5 characters through their letters to each other.
The three relationships are unconnected, except thematically and I've seen this device fail so many times, especially in film, but here, it works. There are subtle details that run through all three pieces, and more noticeably, references to a Paul Klee painting which has resonance for each couple.
Each of the couples is faced with the end of love, for different reasons: one through illness, one through the machinations of the Nazi regime, and one, through simply the wearing away of intimacy at the hands of everyday life.
The letters are meditations on love, and the loss of it, as well as exquisite evocations of the simple details of ordinary lives.
It is is so difficult to write of love without sliding into cliche or triteness, but Walker handles her material so skillfully it is hard to believe this is a debut novel; I can't wait for her follow-up.
The beauty of the writing calls to mind Michael Ondaatje's earlier works and Anne Michaels' Fugitive Pieces. The intensity of the passion made me think of a Jeanette Winterson book I read many years ago - perhaps 'Written on the Body'.
Having said that, Walker has a voice all her own. In fact, this novel, is polyphonic, in that it incorporates the voices of 5 characters through their letters to each other.
The three relationships are unconnected, except thematically and I've seen this device fail so many times, especially in film, but here, it works. There are subtle details that run through all three pieces, and more noticeably, references to a Paul Klee painting which has resonance for each couple.
Each of the couples is faced with the end of love, for different reasons: one through illness, one through the machinations of the Nazi regime, and one, through simply the wearing away of intimacy at the hands of everyday life.
The letters are meditations on love, and the loss of it, as well as exquisite evocations of the simple details of ordinary lives.
It is is so difficult to write of love without sliding into cliche or triteness, but Walker handles her material so skillfully it is hard to believe this is a debut novel; I can't wait for her follow-up.
May 27, 2015
Utterly heartbreaking. The most beautiful sustained piece of writing I've read in years. A miraculous understanding of the depths of old, ground-in love. You'll cry on the peak-hour train. OK, I did.
March 9, 2017
I was prompted to read this exquisite debut novel after it won the WA Premier’s Emerging Writers Award. I also met the author, the warm and wise Yvette Walker, at a small gathering she held to celebrate her win. Last year, after I'd read the rave reviews, I'd bought the book, but it had sat patiently by my bedside. I didn’t know what a gem I was missing out on �
The title of this book is so apt, the story being being told in epistolary form, and about loving relationships that are coming to or have come to an end.
It features the letters between three couples, in three different types of relationships, and living in three different countries and time periods. The common theme is love. Apart from this, the only other common thread is that they all mention the artist Paul Klee, a 20th century modernist, and his painting, ‘Ad Marginem� (On the Edge), which he painted in 1930. The painting is of a central dark red sun, with animals and plants scattered around the periphery. I’ve drawn my own conclusions as to why the author chose this painting. I wonder if the sun represents the love theme central to this novel and, just as the sun is essential for animals and plants survival, love is just as central and necessary to our lives.
The first couple readers meet are Dmitri, a Russian painter who is dying, and his wife, Caithleen. They live in Cork, Ireland, in 1969, and although they share a house, they write to each other of the things they cannot say, knowing Dmitri’s death is imminent. They include playful references to the ‘notorious dog� and Dmitri’s hand drawn stamp and postmark on his letters, as they talk about their forty-year relationship. We learn of their daily routines, Dmitri walking through rainy Cork with the ‘notorious dog,� and smoking in his studio as he tries to finish his white painting before he dies. Their mutual respect and love is evident, however, one gets the idea that Dmitri hasn’t been the easiest person to live with. Here is Caithleen to Dmitri:
The next couple is Grace and Lou, writing to each other in 2011. Grace lives in Perth and works as a bookseller, while her partner, Lou, travels the world. Their relationship is strained, Grace feeling as if it is one-sided, and Lou feeling that Grace’s grief over the death of her brother is a barrier between them. The two women write to each other of their memories and their love, their desire to marry, and the obstacles in their way. Neither are prepared to give up on their relationship just yet:
The third couple is shown through the sad, unilateral letters of a retired English doctor. He’s writing in Bournemouth in 1948 to his German lover, David, with whom he had a secret relationship until the beginning of World War II. These letters were, for me, the most poignant, as they went unanswered by David who had died after being interred under the Nazis for his homosexuality.
It’s hard to believe that with so many books and poems already written about love, something could be original, yet this is. The writing is poetic but not over done, and never becomes cliché. The research has been meticulous, and the details are evocative so the reader is immersed in the settings, the times, and the stories of each of the couples. It’s made all the more nostalgic because letter writing is increasingly becoming a lost art.
This is a very moving book, exquisitely told, and anyone who has known love will relate.
The title of this book is so apt, the story being being told in epistolary form, and about loving relationships that are coming to or have come to an end.
It features the letters between three couples, in three different types of relationships, and living in three different countries and time periods. The common theme is love. Apart from this, the only other common thread is that they all mention the artist Paul Klee, a 20th century modernist, and his painting, ‘Ad Marginem� (On the Edge), which he painted in 1930. The painting is of a central dark red sun, with animals and plants scattered around the periphery. I’ve drawn my own conclusions as to why the author chose this painting. I wonder if the sun represents the love theme central to this novel and, just as the sun is essential for animals and plants survival, love is just as central and necessary to our lives.
The first couple readers meet are Dmitri, a Russian painter who is dying, and his wife, Caithleen. They live in Cork, Ireland, in 1969, and although they share a house, they write to each other of the things they cannot say, knowing Dmitri’s death is imminent. They include playful references to the ‘notorious dog� and Dmitri’s hand drawn stamp and postmark on his letters, as they talk about their forty-year relationship. We learn of their daily routines, Dmitri walking through rainy Cork with the ‘notorious dog,� and smoking in his studio as he tries to finish his white painting before he dies. Their mutual respect and love is evident, however, one gets the idea that Dmitri hasn’t been the easiest person to live with. Here is Caithleen to Dmitri:
‘I suppose the anger will come once you are gone. I can’t imagine. I am supposed to prepare myself for this after, for years of after. It’s not as though I don’t wish to be alone, some days. Especially when you are overbearing and relentless, your Siberian shadow everywhere, all over Granny’s house. But no, not this final goodbye. My love for you is shifting, archiving, preparing to become a memory.�
The next couple is Grace and Lou, writing to each other in 2011. Grace lives in Perth and works as a bookseller, while her partner, Lou, travels the world. Their relationship is strained, Grace feeling as if it is one-sided, and Lou feeling that Grace’s grief over the death of her brother is a barrier between them. The two women write to each other of their memories and their love, their desire to marry, and the obstacles in their way. Neither are prepared to give up on their relationship just yet:
‘When you are asleep, as I have said before, sometimes when you are asleep I am on the edge of beginning to understand how much I love you because in that early-morning moment there is nothing else to understand. Every other concern is gone, every other motive has disappeared, every other fear is, for now, tucked away in its envelope and I only have one, pure motivation. To be loved.�
The third couple is shown through the sad, unilateral letters of a retired English doctor. He’s writing in Bournemouth in 1948 to his German lover, David, with whom he had a secret relationship until the beginning of World War II. These letters were, for me, the most poignant, as they went unanswered by David who had died after being interred under the Nazis for his homosexuality.
‘On that first afternoon, our first afternoon together, we were only at the beginning, at the beginning of everything, when we hadn’t reached love but the ghost of it was there with us in the room, the third, uninvited guest.�
It’s hard to believe that with so many books and poems already written about love, something could be original, yet this is. The writing is poetic but not over done, and never becomes cliché. The research has been meticulous, and the details are evocative so the reader is immersed in the settings, the times, and the stories of each of the couples. It’s made all the more nostalgic because letter writing is increasingly becoming a lost art.
This is a very moving book, exquisitely told, and anyone who has known love will relate.
April 29, 2015
Letters to the End of Love of Love is a very unusual novel - three sets of letters running parallel. "In a coastal village in Cork in 1969, a Russian painter and his Irish novelist wife write letters to one another as they try to come to terms with a fatal illness. On Australia's west coast in 2011, a bookseller writes to her estranged partner in an attempt to understand what has happened to their relationship.In Bournemouth in 1948, a retired English doctor writes to the love of his life, a German artist he lived with in Vienna during the 1930s."
I'm not sure why - it's something I've puzzled over - but I really liked the 1948 letters the most. Which is strange because, as the reader soon realises, there is no answering letter to John 's, the retired English doctor.
Walker evokes the lives and the landscapes of all the letterwriters beautifully. In the opening lines of the novel, "Caithleen- This morning, the notorious dog and I (once again) set off. Terns, cormorants and grey herons brought twigs of morning light through waning dark. The tide ran quicksilver, the fishing boats saluted the bay head. I smoked and I breathed but still barely used my Siberian lungs." I love the white album Dmitri buys and plays whilst he paints his white painting. And his lover Cathleen writes prose and letters to him.
In Western Australia Grace's letters are filled with details of an eclectic household. For this reader they seem slightly muddled (which I'm guessing is clever characterisation by the author). Her partner Lou''s replies are always shorter and more succinct written in hotels and airport lounges. Here is the opening letter of John's and a perfect example of why I am mesmerised by the 1948 sequence and ultimately the whole novel.
"Dearest David,
If you hadn't smoked, and I hadn't looked like a man who had a spectacular gift for telling the time, we never would have met. Or perhaps it was the uniform that attracted you, the white coat, the stethoscope. On July 21st 1929, you were smoking on the stairs of Barts, a newspaper tucked under your arm like a dispatch from a war room. Your hat was pulled down over your face and you were flicking the cigarette ash across your body as if it were incense." Highly recommended.
I'm not sure why - it's something I've puzzled over - but I really liked the 1948 letters the most. Which is strange because, as the reader soon realises, there is no answering letter to John 's, the retired English doctor.
Walker evokes the lives and the landscapes of all the letterwriters beautifully. In the opening lines of the novel, "Caithleen- This morning, the notorious dog and I (once again) set off. Terns, cormorants and grey herons brought twigs of morning light through waning dark. The tide ran quicksilver, the fishing boats saluted the bay head. I smoked and I breathed but still barely used my Siberian lungs." I love the white album Dmitri buys and plays whilst he paints his white painting. And his lover Cathleen writes prose and letters to him.
In Western Australia Grace's letters are filled with details of an eclectic household. For this reader they seem slightly muddled (which I'm guessing is clever characterisation by the author). Her partner Lou''s replies are always shorter and more succinct written in hotels and airport lounges. Here is the opening letter of John's and a perfect example of why I am mesmerised by the 1948 sequence and ultimately the whole novel.
"Dearest David,
If you hadn't smoked, and I hadn't looked like a man who had a spectacular gift for telling the time, we never would have met. Or perhaps it was the uniform that attracted you, the white coat, the stethoscope. On July 21st 1929, you were smoking on the stairs of Barts, a newspaper tucked under your arm like a dispatch from a war room. Your hat was pulled down over your face and you were flicking the cigarette ash across your body as if it were incense." Highly recommended.
April 19, 2013
This review appears at
Letters to the End of Love
by Yvette Walker
University of Queensland Press
I thought I would write this review in the form of a letter to Yvette. I hope she gets to read it.
Dear Yvette Walker,
You could just as easily have called your beautiful novel Letters to the End of Hate, because that is what it is. To me, your words have celebrated a place you love, and the things you love about people, and about being in love itself. I wanted to quote you to yourself here, but the page escapes me- I wanted to reference the remark either Lou or Grace makes about loving receiving emails, but letters singing.
The very act of letter writing is very intimate, and that you have paired it with this kind of romantic love and longing seems incredibly apt. Your novel is about three couples- the first live in County Cork in 1969. Dmitri is a painter. His wife, Caithleen is a writer. He is unwell, dying in fact, and the fear that they have of losing each other, leaving one another behind has altered their relationship. The letters appear to be both an attempt to restore a lost intimacy, and to grant a new level of sharing in their relationship. By writing to one another, Dmitri and Caithleen can finally share the deepest secrets of their hearts, the things they feel and fear but cannot admit even to themselves. I think in doing so, they get some comfort, and some closure. They also get a chance to celebrate the things that have made them special as a couple in words.
Contrast this with Grace and Lou- very much the modern couple. Grace is a bookseller in Perth. She loves her family, she loves her home town, and she loves Lou most of all, who seems to be the one person who she feel understands her. But she also feels abandoned by Lou whose job requires her to travel around the world with a local boy who is suddenly a big shot musician. The constant transit of her life means that the two have been communicating with text messages, emails. Lou is lonely but only when she gets a chance to be, and Grace is almost giving up on the idea that this person who makes her happy will ever have to to actually be with her. Their letters are a slowing down process, a reassuring act that requires quiet reflection on their relationship, and making time to write.
The Bournemouth letters are only written by one person, by John in 1948. He writes to his dead lover David, who was a victim of the Nazis. These letters are difficult to read, because, I imagine, they were difficult to write. David and John had to love each other in secret. The way that they loved each other was viewed as being wrong. I get the impression that John has previously viewed his relationships with men as being to serve a purpose and not necessarily to be enjoyed just for the sake of it, and he seems to be overwhelmed by both his capacity to love David and his capacity to feel incomplete without him.
I don't think, though, that I need to explain your own book to you. After all, you wrote it. You wrote it very well and I hope that you are immensely pleased with it because you should be. This book is poetic, it has vivid imagery, and while it is realistic, it is also hopeful. I have already recommended it to a number of people.
Sincerely,
Emily
Letters to the End of Love
by Yvette Walker
University of Queensland Press
I thought I would write this review in the form of a letter to Yvette. I hope she gets to read it.
Dear Yvette Walker,
You could just as easily have called your beautiful novel Letters to the End of Hate, because that is what it is. To me, your words have celebrated a place you love, and the things you love about people, and about being in love itself. I wanted to quote you to yourself here, but the page escapes me- I wanted to reference the remark either Lou or Grace makes about loving receiving emails, but letters singing.
The very act of letter writing is very intimate, and that you have paired it with this kind of romantic love and longing seems incredibly apt. Your novel is about three couples- the first live in County Cork in 1969. Dmitri is a painter. His wife, Caithleen is a writer. He is unwell, dying in fact, and the fear that they have of losing each other, leaving one another behind has altered their relationship. The letters appear to be both an attempt to restore a lost intimacy, and to grant a new level of sharing in their relationship. By writing to one another, Dmitri and Caithleen can finally share the deepest secrets of their hearts, the things they feel and fear but cannot admit even to themselves. I think in doing so, they get some comfort, and some closure. They also get a chance to celebrate the things that have made them special as a couple in words.
Contrast this with Grace and Lou- very much the modern couple. Grace is a bookseller in Perth. She loves her family, she loves her home town, and she loves Lou most of all, who seems to be the one person who she feel understands her. But she also feels abandoned by Lou whose job requires her to travel around the world with a local boy who is suddenly a big shot musician. The constant transit of her life means that the two have been communicating with text messages, emails. Lou is lonely but only when she gets a chance to be, and Grace is almost giving up on the idea that this person who makes her happy will ever have to to actually be with her. Their letters are a slowing down process, a reassuring act that requires quiet reflection on their relationship, and making time to write.
The Bournemouth letters are only written by one person, by John in 1948. He writes to his dead lover David, who was a victim of the Nazis. These letters are difficult to read, because, I imagine, they were difficult to write. David and John had to love each other in secret. The way that they loved each other was viewed as being wrong. I get the impression that John has previously viewed his relationships with men as being to serve a purpose and not necessarily to be enjoyed just for the sake of it, and he seems to be overwhelmed by both his capacity to love David and his capacity to feel incomplete without him.
I don't think, though, that I need to explain your own book to you. After all, you wrote it. You wrote it very well and I hope that you are immensely pleased with it because you should be. This book is poetic, it has vivid imagery, and while it is realistic, it is also hopeful. I have already recommended it to a number of people.
Sincerely,
Emily
July 18, 2017
This is a book that will stay with me. The stories were touching and hopeful, even where death was involved.
October 17, 2013
‘I don’t know, these letter were supposed to be about you, and me, they were supposed to be my gift to you ..�
In this novel, told though a series of letters, Yvette Walker explores love and loss in the lives of three couples. While the letters come from different places and different times (Bournemouth in 1948, Cork in 1969, Perth in 2011) a form of love - past or present, ended, ending or continuous - is at the centre of each relationship.
In the Bournemouth letters, John (a retired English physician) writes to his lost love David (a German artist). John recalls the time he and David shared in Vienna during the 1930s. John's letters are prompted by the visit of a man carrying a message from David, and are John's way of coming to terms with the loss of David as a victim of the Nazis. Without his soul mate, John is and remains incomplete.
`You walk back to a place you once were, to find someone else there instead.'
In Cork, Dmitri (an exiled Russian painter) writes to his wife Caithleen (an Irish writer).Both are struggling with Dimitri's fatal illness, and the imminent threat of separation. Caithleen has requested that they write to each other as a means of recording `the ordinary things, ordinary poetry' of the four decade span of their relationship. The certainty of the past can be held against the uncertainty of the future.
`I love your emails but this letter of yours, it breathes.'
In Perth, two women are struggling in their relationship. Grace is a bookseller who stays close to home, while Lou is always travelling as part of the entourage of a musician who is said to be `the new Dylan'. The correspondence, by letter and by eMail is initiated by Grace and covers both the past - memories involving minutiae - a longing for each other's company, and future aspirations. Can these letters lead to a strengthening of Lou and Grace's relationship?
Paul Klee's painting `Ad Marginem' (1930) has significance for each of the three couples, and is the one connection between each set of letters. Art has its own power.
In Ms Walker's writing, John, Dmitri, Caithleen, Grace and Lou each have their own unique voice. I found it hard to put the novel down, as I wanted to find out more about each character and whether writing these letters would bring them the understanding they were each seeking. Each story is personal; events (whether small or large, personal or global) have an impact.
I enjoyed reading this novel, and when it ended I wanted more. These characters came alive for me and their life journeys were important.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
In this novel, told though a series of letters, Yvette Walker explores love and loss in the lives of three couples. While the letters come from different places and different times (Bournemouth in 1948, Cork in 1969, Perth in 2011) a form of love - past or present, ended, ending or continuous - is at the centre of each relationship.
In the Bournemouth letters, John (a retired English physician) writes to his lost love David (a German artist). John recalls the time he and David shared in Vienna during the 1930s. John's letters are prompted by the visit of a man carrying a message from David, and are John's way of coming to terms with the loss of David as a victim of the Nazis. Without his soul mate, John is and remains incomplete.
`You walk back to a place you once were, to find someone else there instead.'
In Cork, Dmitri (an exiled Russian painter) writes to his wife Caithleen (an Irish writer).Both are struggling with Dimitri's fatal illness, and the imminent threat of separation. Caithleen has requested that they write to each other as a means of recording `the ordinary things, ordinary poetry' of the four decade span of their relationship. The certainty of the past can be held against the uncertainty of the future.
`I love your emails but this letter of yours, it breathes.'
In Perth, two women are struggling in their relationship. Grace is a bookseller who stays close to home, while Lou is always travelling as part of the entourage of a musician who is said to be `the new Dylan'. The correspondence, by letter and by eMail is initiated by Grace and covers both the past - memories involving minutiae - a longing for each other's company, and future aspirations. Can these letters lead to a strengthening of Lou and Grace's relationship?
Paul Klee's painting `Ad Marginem' (1930) has significance for each of the three couples, and is the one connection between each set of letters. Art has its own power.
In Ms Walker's writing, John, Dmitri, Caithleen, Grace and Lou each have their own unique voice. I found it hard to put the novel down, as I wanted to find out more about each character and whether writing these letters would bring them the understanding they were each seeking. Each story is personal; events (whether small or large, personal or global) have an impact.
I enjoyed reading this novel, and when it ended I wanted more. These characters came alive for me and their life journeys were important.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
April 1, 2013
As I was reading Letters to the End of Love I wondered what I might say to someone who I loved, or had loved, if I knew that love was nearing its end. How would I delve into the intimacy of coupledom and probe what another person meant to my life without recourse to sentimentality? There would be the fear of cliché and mush and the sneaking suspicion that I would embarrass myself. Luckily for us, Yvette Walker, in her debut epistolary novel, manages to explore love and passion in three different contexts in a way that avoids these pitfalls
Walker slowly fleshes out the lives, characters and relationships of three couples spanning different continents and historical moments through the letters they write to each other. While the letters from Cork, Perth and Bournemouth respectively have nothing to do with each other, they intersect and are linked by three universal themes: loss (of a child, a brother and humanity), love and art as transformative, redemptive and compensatory. A Paul Klee painting and the meaning it holds for the respective lovers allow for the disparate stories to be linked and provides Walker with the space to flesh out her characters and their experiences through their interpretation and responses to art in a style that is richly poetic and imaginative.
If writing about love is difficult writing about traumatic historical moments can also be problematic and raise ethical questions about who can speak for whom in a way that avoids appropriating another’s trauma for ones own ends. With the Bournemouth Letters, Walker touches on the little known fate of gay men during the Holocaust; the men who were forced to sew pink triangles of identification onto their prison clothes and who perished alongside all the others. In their understatement, the Bournemouth letters were for me the most compelling and poignant.
While this is a book about love written through an interpretation of art, Walker’s poetic turn of phrase and attention to the small details of daily life brings each couple's context vividly alive and make this book a work of art.
Walker slowly fleshes out the lives, characters and relationships of three couples spanning different continents and historical moments through the letters they write to each other. While the letters from Cork, Perth and Bournemouth respectively have nothing to do with each other, they intersect and are linked by three universal themes: loss (of a child, a brother and humanity), love and art as transformative, redemptive and compensatory. A Paul Klee painting and the meaning it holds for the respective lovers allow for the disparate stories to be linked and provides Walker with the space to flesh out her characters and their experiences through their interpretation and responses to art in a style that is richly poetic and imaginative.
If writing about love is difficult writing about traumatic historical moments can also be problematic and raise ethical questions about who can speak for whom in a way that avoids appropriating another’s trauma for ones own ends. With the Bournemouth Letters, Walker touches on the little known fate of gay men during the Holocaust; the men who were forced to sew pink triangles of identification onto their prison clothes and who perished alongside all the others. In their understatement, the Bournemouth letters were for me the most compelling and poignant.
While this is a book about love written through an interpretation of art, Walker’s poetic turn of phrase and attention to the small details of daily life brings each couple's context vividly alive and make this book a work of art.
May 5, 2013
Three great loves, three sexualities and three decades. All the wonder and pain of a relationship and it's conclusion in the form of letters from one beloved to another. The epistolary format allows segments flecked with images and shards of incredible beauty and pathos. A really lovely book - unmissable.
June 1, 2017
I don't even know where to begin with this book. I'm speechless. This book is gorgeous beyond words. It's heartbreaking and uplifting and beautiful and cruel and perfect and so, so fantastically flawed all in one. I didn't know I could feel so many emotions over the course of so few pages, but Yvette Walker has turned me into a weeping mess of a human being; after finishing the last chapter, I just sat and cried over the sheer beauty of this little book.
All three of the couples featured in this book are wonderful. They're so human and real that I couldn't help feeling drawn into their relationships, feeling their pain and their love. While I completely adored all three stories, John and David's was the one that really hit me, the one that will stick with me in the months and years to come. John's pain and devotion are expressed so genuinely, so beautifully, that I felt my heart break just a little each time I read one of his letters.
Walker's writing is flawless. She knows exactly which words to string together to form some of the most devastating, wonderful, beautiful writing I've ever had the pleasure of reading. I'm so glad that I happened upon this book and took a chance with it, because it truly is a masterpiece.
All three of the couples featured in this book are wonderful. They're so human and real that I couldn't help feeling drawn into their relationships, feeling their pain and their love. While I completely adored all three stories, John and David's was the one that really hit me, the one that will stick with me in the months and years to come. John's pain and devotion are expressed so genuinely, so beautifully, that I felt my heart break just a little each time I read one of his letters.
Walker's writing is flawless. She knows exactly which words to string together to form some of the most devastating, wonderful, beautiful writing I've ever had the pleasure of reading. I'm so glad that I happened upon this book and took a chance with it, because it truly is a masterpiece.
December 28, 2023
This work of fiction is richly interwoven with history. There’s so many well developed characters, separated by decades and international borders, and yet connected by a few tiny hints of a shared culture. I’m quite privileged to be a recent acquaintance of the author, which makes this story all the better.
January 24, 2021
I was given this book by a former partner in 2014 - we separated later that year - perhaps he was trying to tell me something, or he didn't really know about what the book was really about.
I enjoyed it - I like books written in a letter format, I enjoyed the way the 3 separate stories with a slight link weaving together the 3 stories. An air of melancholy , beautiful to read.
I enjoyed it - I like books written in a letter format, I enjoyed the way the 3 separate stories with a slight link weaving together the 3 stories. An air of melancholy , beautiful to read.
April 15, 2013
As the title suggests, this novel consists of a collection of letters all dealing with some kind of loss. There are three main couples involved: In Cork (1969), a Russian painter and his novelist wife who must come to grips with a terminal illness; Perth in 2011 where a bookstore owner writes to her estranged partner trying to fathom what went wrong with their relationship; and Bournemouth in 1948 where a retired doctor writes to his partner who never made it through the war.
These three couples are all vaguely connected through art, war and parallel imagery. I found this to be quite a clever literary tool. It makes lives that seem so random suddenly seem part of some grand plan. All couples have memories involving the artist or artwork of Paul Klee. I also found the imagery of diving and of watches (time) to be quite effective.
Dreams are also of a great importance in the novel and are described vividly. I suppose when love is lost; dreams are sometimes all you have left.
The novel is beautifully written. It is soulful and sorrowful. As a reader you can feel the yearning in Walker’s words; the heartbreak over lost love. There is not really any plot at all � these are simply a collection of love letters. So I don’t think this will appeal to the general reading public.
One aspect I didn’t really enjoy was the graphic sex scene. Please let me state that I am by no means a prude, I appreciate that sometimes to go into great detail about lovemaking is necessary. It just seemed so out of place in this novel. There are these beautiful and lyrical descriptions of love then all of a sudden BANG! (excuse the pun) and we are into 50 Shades of Grey. I just didn’t think it fitted into the novel’s gentle themes.
Overall a beautifully written novel without much of a storyline.
These three couples are all vaguely connected through art, war and parallel imagery. I found this to be quite a clever literary tool. It makes lives that seem so random suddenly seem part of some grand plan. All couples have memories involving the artist or artwork of Paul Klee. I also found the imagery of diving and of watches (time) to be quite effective.
Dreams are also of a great importance in the novel and are described vividly. I suppose when love is lost; dreams are sometimes all you have left.
The novel is beautifully written. It is soulful and sorrowful. As a reader you can feel the yearning in Walker’s words; the heartbreak over lost love. There is not really any plot at all � these are simply a collection of love letters. So I don’t think this will appeal to the general reading public.
One aspect I didn’t really enjoy was the graphic sex scene. Please let me state that I am by no means a prude, I appreciate that sometimes to go into great detail about lovemaking is necessary. It just seemed so out of place in this novel. There are these beautiful and lyrical descriptions of love then all of a sudden BANG! (excuse the pun) and we are into 50 Shades of Grey. I just didn’t think it fitted into the novel’s gentle themes.
Overall a beautifully written novel without much of a storyline.
April 2, 2013
Letters to the End of Love is set in three different eras and three different countries with several correspondents describing their outer and inner worlds to their beloveds at the end or possible end of their relationships.
This beautifully written epistolary novel illustrates that most of what we appreciate and recall about love is in the ordinary and everyday life. This is, also where 'true art exists'. Two of the main characters are artists and a Kleen painting is the physical object that connects the three narratives.
Homosexual relationships are central to the novel but are not what the novel is about. It is about how people love and how relationships between art, music, work, family, war, grief, sport and domestic pets affect love.
At first I thought this debut novel to be another pretentious, creative writing project, dropping artists' names and meditations on art and loss, but it is not. It is well-written with heart-opening beautiful stories.
I also really enjoyed the stories within the letters particularly the childhood tale of chasing Buster, the dog and The Black Cat of Petrograd.
My criticism of the novel is that I don't like the retelling of dreams, they often feel like fillers to me and I don't think they add to the novel.
I look forward to reading more Yvette Walker.
This beautifully written epistolary novel illustrates that most of what we appreciate and recall about love is in the ordinary and everyday life. This is, also where 'true art exists'. Two of the main characters are artists and a Kleen painting is the physical object that connects the three narratives.
Homosexual relationships are central to the novel but are not what the novel is about. It is about how people love and how relationships between art, music, work, family, war, grief, sport and domestic pets affect love.
At first I thought this debut novel to be another pretentious, creative writing project, dropping artists' names and meditations on art and loss, but it is not. It is well-written with heart-opening beautiful stories.
I also really enjoyed the stories within the letters particularly the childhood tale of chasing Buster, the dog and The Black Cat of Petrograd.
My criticism of the novel is that I don't like the retelling of dreams, they often feel like fillers to me and I don't think they add to the novel.
I look forward to reading more Yvette Walker.
April 10, 2013
This impressive debut novel is from a Perth-based lesbian writer, who movingly unfolds three separate stories, through a series of letters. Three secrets, three relationships, and three different sexualities � straight, gay and lesbian � are explored. Cork, 1969; a Russian painter and his Irish novelist wife write letters to one another as they try to come to terms with the painter’s fatal illness. Perth, Australia, 2011: bookseller Grace writes nostalgic letters to her estranged lesbian partner in an attempt to understand what has happened to their relationship. Then finally, in Bournemouth, 1948: John, a retired English doctor writes letters to the love of his life, David, a German artist he lived with in Vienna during the 1930s. Their relationship was put to a premature end by the Nazis. Don’t be put off by this novel being told through letters. The structure works very well and the writing is extremely beautiful and accomplished. This is a novel about love and what it means when it might be coming to an end. It’s haunting and touching, sad but also often wryly witty, and very skilfully imagined.
January 2, 2015
Loosely tied together by threads of love, art and loss, the three stories are woven into a broader context of love that is permissible, love that is not allowed, romantic love, desire, platonic love, motherly love, sisterly love. And loss, so much loss. Is it possible to talk about love without loss? Do we really understand our love for another person before we confront its eventual end? Each of these relationships carry with their own risks. The brutal truth is that lives are lost over love. The novel is about all of these things but it also delves into its varied subject matter so delicately, so artfully, that you hardly realise the story you’re reading is so large. The personal, intimate, characteristics of a single relationship, repeated and echoed a thousand times over, in a wider world fraught with politics, fear and war.
Full review here:
Full review here:
October 15, 2014
A lovely meditation on love, in the form of letters between three couples from different eras and places. The structure took me a little while to settle into - a few tenuous links between the stories had me looking for deeper connections which weren't there - but I eventually realised that the three stories were only thematically linked. In each, people are facing the end of love - through illness, death or estrangement, and the letters they write to each other dig into their rich, messy, passionate experiences with each other and with life, as well as into the tiny, ordinary details that make up a relationship. It's impressively done.
May 17, 2013
Although I am still reading this book (in my truly slow style) I am finding it to be an amazing read. I had not expected to enjoy it as much as I am. I usually avoid books about love or romance. But it so much more than that, a beautiful exploration of characters - far more than the two dimensional one that is so common.
February 22, 2013
I thought this book was brilliant!
February 15, 2019
Heart-wrenching intimacies of love and loss. Cleverly woven stories and a gorgeously written exploration of the delicacy of relationships. I took my time with this book and lingered on language that often surprised me, and the indulgences of love reflected and explored � a wonderful, beautiful book.
April 21, 2023
Beautiful, contemplative prose; reads like memoirs. Very well crafted sentences and poetic in places. My only hesitation is that the voices of all the letter writers sounded the same.
November 14, 2014
“You wanted me to write to you because you were frightened. There were things between us that had been left unsaid, or forgotten in all of this time together. You wanted love letters.�
“Love letters. That’s what we’ll write. Not romance, not porn, but letters that talk about love as it is, in all its strangeness.�
‘Letters to the End of Love� is a beautifully crafted epistolary novel by West Australian author Yvette Walker.
Three eras, three countries and three different couples, who exchange letters in the attempt to deal with their changing or changed relationship.
In Cork, Ireland in 1969, an exiled Russian painter and his Irish wife are coming to terms with a looming terminal illness. An English doctor is mourning the death of his German lover in post-war Bournemouth. And in Perth, Australia a bookseller and her busy, jet-setting partner have hit a crossroad in their long-term relationship in the year 2011 � which path should they take?
The letters offer a brief history of each relationship from courtship on. Each character is gently introduced to the reader as they share daily routines or small, mundane events; observations, thoughts and reflections with their lover, sometimes in a stream-of-consciousness-like flow.
Yet there are key historical/political events happening in the background that also cast their shadows on the lives of each couple.
While these different couples are bound only by one distinctive link � the Paul Klee painting ‘Ad Marginem� � there are many common, perhaps universal themes in their lives such as visual art, poetry, music, family, grief, loss of a loved one, siblinghood, pets, time and the light.
Walker’s writing is beautiful, free of clichés; tender, yet without pathos. There’s a fine, subtle humour and, surprisingly; lots of hope.
Of all letters, I enjoyed the Perth letters the most. I loved the character of Grace, a bookseller of the old tradition who collects her customers� mobile phones before they may enter her store and who prefers ‘real-time travel� via bus or train to airplanes. The Perth letters also gave the strongest sense of place � so maybe there is something to the old adage ‘write what you know�.
I also liked how Walker firmly places pets into her characters' lives, making them protagonists in their own right. I am sure I will not forget the notorious dog or Crow Bait, the cat any time soon.
Kudos also to UQP for the fabulous stamp cover design.
Disclaimer: I received a complimentary copy of this book as part of the Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ First Reads program.
“Love letters. That’s what we’ll write. Not romance, not porn, but letters that talk about love as it is, in all its strangeness.�
‘Letters to the End of Love� is a beautifully crafted epistolary novel by West Australian author Yvette Walker.
Three eras, three countries and three different couples, who exchange letters in the attempt to deal with their changing or changed relationship.
In Cork, Ireland in 1969, an exiled Russian painter and his Irish wife are coming to terms with a looming terminal illness. An English doctor is mourning the death of his German lover in post-war Bournemouth. And in Perth, Australia a bookseller and her busy, jet-setting partner have hit a crossroad in their long-term relationship in the year 2011 � which path should they take?
The letters offer a brief history of each relationship from courtship on. Each character is gently introduced to the reader as they share daily routines or small, mundane events; observations, thoughts and reflections with their lover, sometimes in a stream-of-consciousness-like flow.
Yet there are key historical/political events happening in the background that also cast their shadows on the lives of each couple.
While these different couples are bound only by one distinctive link � the Paul Klee painting ‘Ad Marginem� � there are many common, perhaps universal themes in their lives such as visual art, poetry, music, family, grief, loss of a loved one, siblinghood, pets, time and the light.
Walker’s writing is beautiful, free of clichés; tender, yet without pathos. There’s a fine, subtle humour and, surprisingly; lots of hope.
Of all letters, I enjoyed the Perth letters the most. I loved the character of Grace, a bookseller of the old tradition who collects her customers� mobile phones before they may enter her store and who prefers ‘real-time travel� via bus or train to airplanes. The Perth letters also gave the strongest sense of place � so maybe there is something to the old adage ‘write what you know�.
I also liked how Walker firmly places pets into her characters' lives, making them protagonists in their own right. I am sure I will not forget the notorious dog or Crow Bait, the cat any time soon.
Kudos also to UQP for the fabulous stamp cover design.
Disclaimer: I received a complimentary copy of this book as part of the Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ First Reads program.
July 15, 2013
When I first heard about the concept of this book (which was only a few days before I started reading it) I was intrigued. A novel comprised of three sets of love letters that chronicle the ends three very different relationships: a 1940's gay male relationship in Vienna ended by the loss of one partner in the war; a 1960's husband and wife in Cork sending each other love letters after one of them has developed a terminal illness; a modern day Perth lesbian sends letters to her jet-setting partner.
Love is timeless through the generations. It does not know cultural boundaries. And it does not play favorites with sexuality.
As could be expected, there are some absolutely beautiful passages in this book. The reader is invited to share some intimate moments as couples express their love for each other during times of crisis and separation.
Unfortunately, for every beautiful passage there seemed to be another two that fell flat. Perversely, given the novel is written by a modern Perth gay woman, it's the letters written by Grace, the Perth gay woman, that failed the reality test for me. I spent long periods disbelieving them.
Grace grew up in my neighbourhood. Not just in my city, not just in my district, but literally next door. The streets named in the book are the same streets that I jog round, the park is the same one that I walk my dog in. I work a few doors down from the bookshop that she runs. I suspect that the author couldn't help capturing some of her own world in minute detail even when it detracted from the story. I remember one passage that read almost like a street directory (literally: rather than saying simply 'I searched the neighbourhood for the dog' or 'I search everywhere from Hyde Park to Grosvenor St for the dog', she mentioned each of the streets she searched by name - I can't believe that lovers would need to provide each other with so much exposition, even when separated by oceans). Every set of letters contained this type of dialogue, but I found the Perth Letters to be the most distracting.
And that might be part of the problem. Exposition is necessary for the reader, and even a novelist that works hard to 'show not tell' the story is going to struggle to avoid it. It's not ideal in a novel at the best of times, but sucks the life out of a love letter. I think there was too much in this novel generally, but it really spoiled this collection of love letters for me.
Love is timeless through the generations. It does not know cultural boundaries. And it does not play favorites with sexuality.
As could be expected, there are some absolutely beautiful passages in this book. The reader is invited to share some intimate moments as couples express their love for each other during times of crisis and separation.
Unfortunately, for every beautiful passage there seemed to be another two that fell flat. Perversely, given the novel is written by a modern Perth gay woman, it's the letters written by Grace, the Perth gay woman, that failed the reality test for me. I spent long periods disbelieving them.
Grace grew up in my neighbourhood. Not just in my city, not just in my district, but literally next door. The streets named in the book are the same streets that I jog round, the park is the same one that I walk my dog in. I work a few doors down from the bookshop that she runs. I suspect that the author couldn't help capturing some of her own world in minute detail even when it detracted from the story. I remember one passage that read almost like a street directory (literally: rather than saying simply 'I searched the neighbourhood for the dog' or 'I search everywhere from Hyde Park to Grosvenor St for the dog', she mentioned each of the streets she searched by name - I can't believe that lovers would need to provide each other with so much exposition, even when separated by oceans). Every set of letters contained this type of dialogue, but I found the Perth Letters to be the most distracting.
And that might be part of the problem. Exposition is necessary for the reader, and even a novelist that works hard to 'show not tell' the story is going to struggle to avoid it. It's not ideal in a novel at the best of times, but sucks the life out of a love letter. I think there was too much in this novel generally, but it really spoiled this collection of love letters for me.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 17, 2014
What happens after the happily ever after of a marriage or relationship, asks debut writer Yvette Walker in her poignant first novel, Letters to the End of Love. Three different couples, a heterosexual, a gay and a lesbian relationship are given close scrutiny by Walker in her book. The stories and secrets of each couple unfolds in beautiful layers by an entirely epistolary format. The first couple is based in Cork, Ireland, 1969. An Irish Novelist and a Russian Painter use love letters as a vehicle to assist them in accepting a fatal illness. The time period and locale switches, as does the couple of Walker’s focus, as we meet Lou and Grace. Their relationship and letters takes on an almost nostalgic theme as the couple tries to understand the demise of their loving relationship, which has tested by distance. Finally, the series of letters I found most touching and profound is that of John, a retired Doctor based in Bournemouth, England, 1948. What is most powerful about John’s letters is that he is never able to receive a reply, as he writes to David, his dead lover. John and David lived together in 1930’s Vienna, where David was an Artist, but their lives were ripped apart tragically by war. There are underlying themes that link these seemingly separate couples together, love, loss and art. Also present is music, culture and pets that take on their own personalities, which makes this book even more original. The structure of the book, using letters only as a mode to tell these characters stories, adds further to the readers understanding of the intimacy shared by the characters. Furthermore, I found the prose in this novel to be lyrical and utterly divine, which is a testament to Walker’s background in poetry. This is a book that I would recommend to those who are searching for a deeply fulfilling and emotional read that makes you question your ideas of love.
November 8, 2015
Three sets of lives and letters (Cork 1969; Bournemouth 1948; Perth, 2011) intersect in this deeply moving novel that chronicles what happens when death closes in on one half of a happy marriage, when misunderstanding and grief threaten to upend the great love between two very different women and the absolute devastation Nazism wreaked on the lives of gay men.
The writing is unbelievably lovely.
This about marriage: "Vivienne laughed, and remarked on the strange, physical laws inherent in marriage, which, after many years of shared intimacy, flung the husband and wife out into separate spheres."
About the afterlife: "I asked you what Heaven was like. Crowded, you said. It is almost impossible to get a good table for dinner....Every night in the dining rooms you looked for someone you loved, but Heaven was a country of strangers."
On grief: "...in the old days, people knew that they bore their own death within them like the stone within the fruit. As if our lives were spent growing our own deaths inside us....My brother is gone but gone where, I can't say. That's the most maddening part. To not know where he is, when the world is without him and wants him back, makes nothing final."
About the solaces of art: "Forgive me, you know I am still trying to understand many of your paintings. I try to see what it is you were seeing but I am still too linear, too logical, some days all I can see is they don't look like the world. But as my heart becomes more fragmented, dissected, unstable, I am able to understand them a little bit more. As I begin to understand that what I look like (a man intact) and what I experience (a man collapsing into himself) can both exist at once, I begin to see your work more clearly from a wounded eye."
The writing is unbelievably lovely.
This about marriage: "Vivienne laughed, and remarked on the strange, physical laws inherent in marriage, which, after many years of shared intimacy, flung the husband and wife out into separate spheres."
About the afterlife: "I asked you what Heaven was like. Crowded, you said. It is almost impossible to get a good table for dinner....Every night in the dining rooms you looked for someone you loved, but Heaven was a country of strangers."
On grief: "...in the old days, people knew that they bore their own death within them like the stone within the fruit. As if our lives were spent growing our own deaths inside us....My brother is gone but gone where, I can't say. That's the most maddening part. To not know where he is, when the world is without him and wants him back, makes nothing final."
About the solaces of art: "Forgive me, you know I am still trying to understand many of your paintings. I try to see what it is you were seeing but I am still too linear, too logical, some days all I can see is they don't look like the world. But as my heart becomes more fragmented, dissected, unstable, I am able to understand them a little bit more. As I begin to understand that what I look like (a man intact) and what I experience (a man collapsing into himself) can both exist at once, I begin to see your work more clearly from a wounded eye."
September 14, 2013
I found this book to be a challenge. The idea of a book comprised of love letters appealed to me but in reality I found the letters to be contrived for the reader rather than deeply emotional.
The letters are made up of 3 couples, 3 love stories and the only one I felt was believable was the Bournemouth part. All of these letters were from one man to his dead lover and I found the depth and detail depicted grief well. The memories and the dreams worked well as the letters were more of a memoir never to be read by anyone. They were his way of dealing with a deep void in his life.
The other letters were filled with details that made the letters so unnatural that I really struggled with them. I just could not connect with the characters or emotion at all.
The letters are made up of 3 couples, 3 love stories and the only one I felt was believable was the Bournemouth part. All of these letters were from one man to his dead lover and I found the depth and detail depicted grief well. The memories and the dreams worked well as the letters were more of a memoir never to be read by anyone. They were his way of dealing with a deep void in his life.
The other letters were filled with details that made the letters so unnatural that I really struggled with them. I just could not connect with the characters or emotion at all.
July 16, 2014
I picked this one up admiring the cover design looks like stamps and the thought of a story through letters, about love, intrigued me. I almost didn't want to read on as it was a bit sad at the beginning, but continued on. Later, I found there was more to the story, still sad part...a sort of dwelling on the sad turn of events that the characters hung on to.
I think it was also the style of writing that hooked me back into the novel. I knew someone awhile back from Australia who has a literary background, he had a way of putting things that made you think but also a tendency to make everyone laugh. A smart kind of humor. An interesting read all the same. I would like to read more books by Australian writers.
I think it was also the style of writing that hooked me back into the novel. I knew someone awhile back from Australia who has a literary background, he had a way of putting things that made you think but also a tendency to make everyone laugh. A smart kind of humor. An interesting read all the same. I would like to read more books by Australian writers.
October 28, 2015
Letters to the End of Love is a beautifully written epistolary novel by Australian author, Yvette Walker. The stories are divided into the Cork Letters, Bournemouth Letters and Perth Letters. Each of the letters focus on the individual stories of three separate sets of couples spanning different decades and although unconnected each explore in different ways the universality of love and ultimately of loss.
Yvette Walker kindly gave me a review copy of her book.
Yvette Walker kindly gave me a review copy of her book.
December 20, 2013
Beautiful, poignant and interesting masterpiece of a novel. Three sets of love letters gradually tell of three couples' love of their lives. Each set of letters has been written for a specific purpose, and the delightful prose in each is evocative of many different parts of the world, rich and cultured lives and highly personal emotions, all loosely strung together by a shoelace of a single painting.
August 25, 2013
A wonderful book to get me back into reading. The layout of the letters was well paced though I found myself wishing for one more round at the end. These characters have come to life for me. I want to sit and have tea with Caithleen and Grace.
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