5,000 Km Per Second - Manuele Fior
Translated by Jamie Richards. A young Italian girl, Lucia, moves in next to Piero, who is smitten instantly. And maybe his friend Nicola is as well? Years later, Lucia is in Norway as an exchange student, living with a woman and her son, Sven. Piero goes to Cairo to join an archeology dig. Lucia gets pregnant, but her marriage falls apart. Later still, Piero now has a wife and son, and lives much of the year in Egypt. They reconnect and reminisce. The title refers to how far away the two are and the slight delay in communication via telephone. I'm not sure I fully understood the interplay between the characters; the ending took me by surprise, and not necessarily in a good way. Gorgeous watercolor art, though. [3.5]
