Heart's Delight - Hardcover

Per Nilsson

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1886910928 ISBN 13: 9781886910928

Publisher: Front Street, 2003

Synopsis

Heart’s Delight opens with a 16-year-old boy poised over a desk. He is alone in the room, going through the left over items of a relationship with his ex-girlfriend, Ann-Kathrin. As he systematically destroys each object, he replays a scene from their relationship that relates to it. By the end of this moving story, he has gotten rid of everything; he’s torn up the bus pass from the station where they met, blown the unused condoms into balloons and set them adrift from his balcony, and dropped the pot of lemon balm tea she gave him from the balcony, too. Along the way, Per Nilsson carefully traces their tumultuous relationship, from their first hopeful meeting, to the boy’s loneliness when his family was away and she never called, to her betrayal of him with a rival. Nilsson’s skill in revealing the innermost thoughts of a teenage boy at a vulnerable time in his life made this an award-winning book in Europe.

About this title

About the Author

Per Nilsson was born in Malm in 1954, and lives in Slvesborg with his four children. He trained as a mathematics and music teacher. For many years he worked part-time in a school and part-time as an author. Today he is a full-time author. As an author, he sees his books as letters in which he carries on conversations with young adults about life and death, about hope and belief in the future, about roles we play, the world we live in and about love. His literary strength lies in his use of new motives and unexpected ways of thinking. He has written about twenty books, many of which have won awards. Heart's Delight was the first of Mr. Nilsson's books to be published in the U.S. It won first prize in Raben & Sjogren's 1992 awards competition for best love story, the prestigious Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis in 1997, and the Dutch "Silver Kiss" in 1999. You & You & You is the second. Mr. Nilsson has written several scripts for plays and for a movie based on one of his novels. His books have been translated into many languages-sixteen at last count. e-mail Per Nilsson

From School Library Journal

Grade 9 Up-A 16-year-old boy suffers the agonies and ecstasies of first love in this sometimes melodramatic but ultimately engaging novel. The unnamed narrator ponders memorabilia from his relationship with Ann-Katrin-a bus pass, unused condoms, old movie tickets, a plant she gave him-and relives their courtship. He remembers his infatuation with the red-haired stranger on his bus route, and his joy when they first spoke. He recalls the night they started a sexual relationship. He also broods over the signs he missed, signs suggesting that all might not be well. In one scene that rings true, the narrator shoplifts condoms because he is too embarrassed to buy them. The sex scene is sweet and realistic without being graphic. The teens do not, however, use the contraceptives, because Ann-Katrin claims she can't get pregnant when the moon is full, a move that apparently has no dire consequences. Things do fall apart, however, when he arrives home early from a month in Massachusetts and discovers that Ann-Katrin has been sleeping with someone else. Devastated, he plans to commit suicide if she doesn't call him. The cover, which shows a blown-up condom on a string, isn't very appealing. However, the novel's melodrama reflects the ups and downs of a first love and first breakup, and readers who want to experience a romance from a male point of view will find it appealing.
Miranda Doyle, San Francisco Public Library
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Edition details

• Publisher: Front Street
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 1886910928
• ISBN 13: 9781886910928
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 160