Love Stories: Uplifting True Stories about Love from the InternationallyBestselling Author of Boy Swallows Universe

WINNER, INDIE BOOK AWARDS 2022 BOOK OF THE YEAR

Trent Dalton, Australia's best-loved writer, goes out into the world and asks a simple, direct question: 'Can you please tell me a love story?'


A blind man yearns to see the face of his wife of thirty years. A divorced mother has a secret love affair with a priest. A geologist discovers a three-minute video recorded by his wife before she died. A tree lopper's heart falls in a forest. A working mum contemplates taking photographs of her late husband down from her fridge. A girl writes a last letter to the man she loves most, then sets it on fire. A palliative care nurse helps a dying woman converse with the angel at the end of her bed. A renowned 100-year-old scientist ponders the one great earthly puzzle he was never able to solve: 'What is love?'

Endless stories. Human stories. Love stories.

Inspired by a personal moment of profound love and generosity, Trent Dalton, bestselling author and one of Australia's finest journalists, spent two months in 2021 speaking to people from all walks of life, asking them one simple and direct question: 'Can you please tell me a love story?' The result is an immensely warm, poignant, funny and moving book about love in all its guises, including observations, reflections and stories of people falling into love, falling out of love, and never letting go of the loved ones in their hearts. A heartfelt, deep, wise and tingly tribute to the greatest thing we will never understand and the only thing we will ever really need: love.

'It's the kind of book that has some impact on the reader ... a Chaucerian endeavour, a rich caravanserai of real, living people with something important to tell.' Sydney Morning Herald

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352 pages

Average rating: 7.39

49 RATINGS

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Community Reviews

shazjmorgan
May 03, 2022
7/10 stars
This book was a beautifully pleasant surprise. I loved Boy Swallows Universe, and I pre-purchased my copy of All Our Shimmering Skies. But I had absolutely no intentions of reading this book, Love Stories. I tend to stay away from short stories. I also tend to avoid blatant romance, preferring my romance to be cleverly disguised in contemporary or literary fiction. But I recently joined an online bookclub, and this was the book they were reading for the current month (with the promise of an online discussion with the author, Trent Dalton.) How could I resist? Love Stories is not simply a collection of short stories, but rather a collection of real life memories, experiences and lifestyles. Dalton expertly weaves these treasured moments together in a way that keeps you on the edge of your seat, in anticipation. Heart melting moments of joy and love entwined with heart-breaking moments that really make you grateful for what we do have in this life. I love how the author drops a line or two hinting at a future story. Sprinkling little seeds of anticipation, allowing these seeds to sprout just a little, before he returns to said seeds with links from within other stories. Not simply a collection of short stories but rather a collective love story.

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