The Forest

<p>Fresh out of an unsatisfying relationship with a younger woman John Martin New York advertising executive is suddenly possessed by a strange and irresistible desire to cross the globe to Budapest and strike up a new friendship with his ex-wife with whom he hasn't spoken in years.<br><br>Plunged into the mysterious world of Budapest just after the collapse of the Iron Curtain he falls in love with a waitress while also inadvertently reawakening and expanding intimacy with his ex-wife. He quickly becomes the apex of two conflicting love triangles but his repeated trips to Budapest only deepen the confusion and sense of longing set off by a series of dreams and random events that he mistakenly takes as his emotional guide ultimately revealing the absurdity of his quest which was doomed to fail from the outset.<br><br>The Forest is a sumptuous and captivating novel rich in psychological insights and depth of linguistic expression. Death in Venice for Generation X meets Richard Ford's Women with Men.<br><br>One customer reviewer said of The Forest: The psychology is flawless...all actions and conclusions are born out of the protagonist contemplating the apparently meaningless events in the outside world; he is driven by the impetus of vividly described moments that give the story's psychology an almost Zen feeling. Through the psychological authenticity of the protagonists's thoughts and emotions I became so much involved with the story that once I got used to the relatively slow pace I couldn't put the book down and finished it in two long reads.</p>