Love In The Air
A hugely romantic debut novel about love and destiny. Previously published as Beginner’s Greek and now available as an ebook.‘Love in the Air’ is set in New York City and tells the story of a young man named Peter Russell and a young woman named Holly Edwards. Peter works for a prestigious financial firm on Wall Street, and Holly teaches Latin at a private girls' school – when they sit next to each other on a plane journey, an intoxicating tale of romance, coincidence and thwarted plans starts to unfold. Other characters include: Jonathan Speedwell, an extremely handsome writer who is also Holly's husband, Peter's best friend and, crucially, a cad; Charlotte Montague, Peter's rather tiresome and pretentious wife; Arthur Beeche, the dignified, formal and very, very rich proprietor of the firm where Peter works; Julia Montague, Charlotte's beautiful, young step-mother and Dick Montague, a successful, vain lawyer who is Charlotte's father.Take all these characters and throw in miscommunications, letters going astray, adulterous relationships, fiendish behaviour and ultimately an ending in which everyone gets their due… The result is a debut novel that is charming, fresh, clever and beautifully written; a deeply romantic story about the transformative power of love.
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Harper Perennial
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This Harper Perennial edition published 2008
First published in Great Britain as Beginner’s Greek by Fourth Estate in 2008
Copyright © James Collins 2008
James Collins asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work
‘Beginner’s Greek’, from Collected Poems by James Merrill and J. D. McClatchy and Stephen Yenser, editors, copyright © 2001 by the Literary Estate of James Merrill at Washington University. Used by kind permission of Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc. Quotations from The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann are taken from the Everyman’s Library edition, with a translation by John E. Woods.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
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Source ISBN: 9780007255825
Ebook Edition © JANUARY 2014 ISBN: 9780007580699
Version: 2019-06-18
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Contents
When Peter Russell boarded an airplane, he always wondered whether he would sit next to a beautiful young woman during the flight, and, if so, whether he and she would fall in love. This time was no different, except for his conviction that—this time—it really would happen. Of course, he always believed more than ever that this time it really would happen. But he knew. He knew. He was working his way down the aisle of a plane bound for Los Angeles from New York, and he figured, realistically, that the occurrence he envisioned would more likely take place on a long trip. He was pleased to discover that on his side of the plane the rows had only two seats, an arrangement that would promote intimacy and arriving at his assigned place he found that his row mate had not yet appeared, which would allow his mind to savor the possibilities for at least a few more minutes. He stowed his suit jacket, briefcase, and laptop, and settled into his seat by the window. He opened his paper and then looked to his right, regarding the pregnant emptiness beside him. The clasp and buckle of the seat belt lay there impassively, indifferent to whom they would soon embrace. He looked at the scratchy gray and red upholstery, with its abstract design that vaguely recalled clouds at sunset. Peter remembered being at dinner in college one time and listening to an incredibly pretentious jerk, his best friend, impress everyone with some stuff from the highly selective English seminar he was taking—something about how absence implies presence. (“So I guess I shouldn’t worry about cutting class so much.” General laughter. Jerk.) Well, Peter had to admit, the most prominent thing about the throne of absence beside him was the presence that it lacked.
A man wearing a beige shirt and jacket stopped at Peter’s row. He was short and Eastern European—looking and had a small mustache. He looked at the stub of his boarding pass and at the row number and back again and moved on. Peter was relieved. But who knew? Anyone who sat with him might transform his life in ways he would never expect. The man coming down the aisle, the one with the bulldog face and gold tie clasp, might be the owner of a smelting concern in Buffalo, and he might take a shine to Peter and ask him to become a vice president, and Peter might say yes, and move to Buffalo, where he would find the people more complicated than he expected and where, in an appealing way, the grime would climb like ivy up the walls of the old brick buildings. He would marry someone nice who had worked in New York for a couple of years but preferred Buffalo and being near her companionable, well-off parents, and he and she would live in a spacious Victorian house, with several old trees whose leaves in summer were as big as dinner plates. Or what about the ancient, bent-over gentleman in the three-piece suit? Couldn’t he be a great-uncle who had disappeared in Burma decades ago and about whom Peter had never heard but whose identity would be revealed when Peter noticed that his ring bore the same distinctive device as one owned by Peter’s grandfather? He would leave Peter his fortune.
