From the acclaimed Icelandic author of The Journey Home comes a haunting collection of thematically linked stories that traverse the twelve months of a year. The stories in Valentines capture the most candid moments between lovers, husbands and wives, parents and children, when truths and true feelings surge to the surface and everything changes. A wife realizes her closest confidante is much more than that. A father tries to make his new lover into the image of his late wife. A husband, a wife, a child, a boating accident: no harm done . . . or is there? Olaf Olafsson's fans will recognize the perfect restraint and precision—and quick wit—with which he explores these dark epiphanies, when the heart is suddenly laid bare, whether by love or betrayal, disenchantment or the shock of loss. Valentines is a powerful work of fiction from one of our most gifted and subtle international writers at work today.