One Station Away

A novel by Olaf Olafsson
HarperCollins, 2017

I found this in a Des Moines library sell cart.

I had read other books by Olaf, a Reykjavík-born polymath who has been successful in physics, computer systems and media (he helped develop the Sony Playstation and was a Time-Warner vice-president); his novels tend to be melancholy affairs, this one is no exception. Magnus Conyngham is a neurologist, the son of an English father and an Icelandic mother. He has a difficult relationship with his parents, they were both active in music but he was not, and grew up suspecting that he was the cause of his mother’s failure to succeed as a concert pianist. He had a girlfriend, Malena, and currently works with a woman named Simone in a project with an aim to reach people who are apparently brain dead. One of whom, name unknown, he thinks he can make contact with.

These four women are a source of conflict for Magnus: his girlfriend’s health issues, his mother’s recording comeback, Simone’s failed attempts to establish a more meaningful relationship with Magnus, and the semi-comatose accident victim who is resistant to his attempts to bring her out of her shell.

Things go from bad to worse as the story progresses, Magnus can’t seem to react in a meaningful way to any of it—he is emotionally stunted—one colleague suggests that he take a personality inventory to find out where he is on the autistic spectrum.

Olaf’s writing is fine, he handles the four intertwining stories well, even when they get a little far-fetched.

A qualified recommendation, I think his more recent books are better.