SILENCE IN OCTOBER, the first of Danish author Jens Christian Grøndahl's novels to be published in the US, is a story of meetings and partings and the life lived in between. This beautifully written, thought provoking novel is a brutally honest examination of the dissolution of the marriage between an unnamed 44-year-old art historian and his wife, who left one day without explanation. After her departure, the narrator begins to examine not only his marriage but all of his important relationships, the choices he has made, and the person he is. It offers no answers to the many questions it poses, only possibilities.

With a virtual empty nest, the 18-year marriage of the narrator and his wife, Astrid, has settled into a comfortable but dull routine in their Copenhagen home. Yet, Grøndahl does not offer this as the reason Astrid has left. Instead, the reader, like the narrator, can only speculate why she has gone, lying to her children and leaving her husband bewildered. Although Astrid is not present as the narrator relates his story, she is a major presence. She is the catalyst for all his recollections, he sees her in the face of their daughter and he follows her movements through Portugal by the credit card statements he receives. As Astrid follows the exact route the couple took on a vacation seven years earlier, staying at the same hotels and eating at the same restaurants, the narrator recalls their marriage as well as the other two loves of his adult life. The stories and bodies of Inés, Elisabeth, and Astrid unfold before him, forcing him to confront his past and also his present. As readers, we too confront the details of life with Astrid and without Astrid. But life goes on for our pensive narrator after she so quickly and quietly departs. He must continue to work and to deal with his children, parents, and friends. However, his perception of life is altered with the silence that remains after Astrid is gone. As he asks, "why had she left," he also asks many deeper questions such as "did I know Astrid at all?" "had I been happy?" "did I love her or did it just look that way?" 

This elegant novel moves effortlessly back and forth through time as the narrator recalls his life --- its most important relationships and its defining moments. It is filled with unceasing questions on the nature of things undefinable, such as happiness and love. The lyrical richness and slow pace of Grøndahl's prose contributes to the melancholy tone of the book. Readers will be challenged, along with the disheartened art historian, to examine relationships and one's responsibility in those relationships for the happiness of others and of self. 

SILENCE IN OCTOBER marks of the debut of one of Europe's most popular writers in the US. It will surely create not only the demand for more of his work in this market but also a legion of fans.