Eight White Nights

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.

by André Aciman

Farrar, Straus and Giroux · First published 2010