The story begins in a hospital in Denmark where a 32-year old woman, an actress, has been brought in from a horrible automobile accident and is critical condition. Her name is Lucca Montale. Her arms and legs are plastered and her eyes are bandaged. It falls to Robert, her doctor, to tell her she will not see again. From this point, the story generally moves back in time to tell the individual stories of these two people before and up to where they meet in the hospital.

Grøndahl's writing is emotionally dense, penetrating and perceptive. I'm not sure if he is empathetic to his characters or just offering the reader the opportunity of being so. He tells their stories through their relationships with others; parents, friends, lovers, co-workers, children. The book seems dense beyond the page count and I took it slowly. Admittedly, at one point, I got frustrated with Lucca—ready to throw the book because I could see the car wreck coming—but I'm fairly sure the author intended that. Robert's story is far less firery but no less interesting. Eventually, Grøndahl brilliantly brings the story of the two people around to the present for what I thought was an exquisite ending. ( )

I was a little disappointed with this book. I don't think it's the author's best work. That said, Grondahl does have moments of what I consider to be great writing. It's definitely worth reading over all, but there are patches that made me wonder. He is at his best in describing the subtle aspects of human interactions and there are plenty of these in Lucca, but I reckon the book could have done with a bit of editing to cut out some of the less inspiring parts. Or maybe I'm just not smart enough to appreciate good writing! ( )