“As far as my purpose of reading goes; which is simply that of having a pleasurable, indulgent time away from the day to day things at making life’s ends meet, it’s a well written, intensely expressive, quietly powerful, short and sweet story of love. There is a poetic touch to the style of the author, which perhaps works great with the love stories. If you are something of a romantic, even if not the die hard kind, my take is that you’ll simply love it.

I could recommend this book to almost anyone, irrespective of gender or age, but if you read books from a social or a literary critic’s point of view, this one may not be for you.

It is a story of boundless love, the one that needs no confines, for it can happen when it happens, you never know. The story centers on a brief, four-day love affair between a National Geographic photographer and an Italian-American farm wife in Iowa, who then never lose their feelings for each other. In August 1965, 52-year-old divorce Robert Kincaid packs his pickup truck and travels to Iowa’s Madison County, the location of seven covered bridges he is to photograph for National Geographic. Unable to locate them, he pulls into a farm to ask directions. The woman he finds there, a 45 year old Francesca Johnson, is alone, her husband and teenage children off at a state fair for the week. Initially, neither Robert nor Francesca expects their random encounter to lead to seduction, yet their mutual desire ensues and intensely prevails for an eternal looking 4 days. However, reality and responsibility soon intrude too soon, and the affair ends. The two lovers, torn by separation, return to their previous lives with thoughts of what might have been.

The ‘love’ is as real as is the ‘sorrow’ in this story, and if you relate rather well with the emotions in there, it can lead you to wonder if we really need a world where everything, every relationship needs to be put into the confines of one predefined frame or the other.

I had seen the movie much before I read the book. I loved the movie, and the book is certainly no less.”

Vivek Yadav