Under a bright night sky, on a bridge over
the Neva River, a young dreamer comes across a woman in tears. Saint-Petersburg
is immersed into another of its white nights, a natural phenomenon that makes
the night seems as clear as day, and gives the city the dreamlike atmosphere
ideal for these two lost souls to meet. Over four nights, the shy young man and
the naive girl establish intense bonds, but the romantic course of this
fleeting encounter may be threatened...
Author: Born in October 30, 1821 in Moscow,
Fyodor Dostoyevsky was a Russian
novelist, whose literary work explores human psychology in the troubled
political, social, and spiritual atmosphere of 19th-century Russia. He is one
of the greatest authors of all time. He began writing in his 20s. After being
arrested and sentenced to death by the Tsarist regime in 1849, the sentence was
commuted to four years of hard labour in Siberia. Underneath the author lived a
man tormented by his father's murder, the death of a child, the permanent
threat of epilepsy and a gambling addiction. He died in Saint Petersburg in
1881.
My thoughts: “White Nights” is among my
favourite books. I simply couldn’t put it down: I read it in one night and felt
butterflies in my stomach as I read on and on. Like love at first sight…an
irresistible book! I loved the protagonist or should I say the dreamer, a loner
in search for love and happiness.
It was in FNAC - Armazéns do Chiado,
Lisbon that I came across a bookshelf with the collection "Os Livros da
Minha Vida" (The Books of my Life) published by “Clube do Autor” in 2013.
This is a set of works considered classic; they marked their time and have a
special place in the history of literature. Each title is presented by a public
figure, in order to highlight its most appealing features, and the impact it
has had on his/her life at some point. To my great surprise, the preface of “White
Nights” was written by Margarida Rebelo Pinto, my preferred Portuguese writer.
