This is a book very difficult to review without spoiling the ending for anyone, because if I say only one word about how the book left me at the end, that will be a give-away ! So it is a little tricky because yes, I did massively enjoy this book and think it is a great read but grrr also so frustrating !!!
At first I thought the idea of a novel in e-mail form was a little gimmicky and was reluctant to start. But start I did and got nearly instantly hooked. First because reading short e-mails is easy but above all because of the quality of the conversation between the two characters. It flows incredibly well and feels very close to anything that could very well happen to anyone. Who has not dreamed of the perfect virtual 'one', the one you can tell it all because he/she is so clever everything is received, read and understood ? The one that always has the answer and mostly, the one who is always available to answer when real people let you down. So yes, I totally believed in the premise of the story, found it at first intriguing and then as the conversation accelerates, simply riveting. 'Will they ever meet' was my constant wonder...Yes Emmi is a modern online madame Bovary and I can also see the film coming out of such a story...Many books have been written in the form of letters. Why not e-mails ? who write letters today ? It had to be e-mails. But it does not in any way diminish the quality of the writing. Of the translation too. Quite the opposite, I felt precisely because it is in e-mail form, the quality is integral to our reading of the book. Anything less well put and we'd abandon quickly as boring. And this is definitely not at any point ! A great story if you can sustain the suspens till the end !