Ford von Reyn presents Love from Afar: Finland
12:30 PM • Sunday, January 31, 2027Gibson's BookstoreFree Vermont author Ford von Reyn visits Gibson's Bookstore to share his debut novel, Love From Afar: Finland. ABOUT THE BOOK"Darting from one era to another, from one country to another, it exalts and laments the shifting landscapes of love in all its varieties. This book is so poignant it may just break your heart." -Dan Cryer, author of Being Alive and Having to Die: The Spiritual Odyssey of Forrest Church; former Newsday book criticSeventy-three-year-old Frank Cadwallader lies in a hospital bed recovering from surgery, haunted not by his illness, but by a memory he has carried for decades. When his inquisitive granddaughter asks about a trip he had taken to Finland and the Soviet Union years ago Frank is drawn back to a summer that changed the course of his life.In the mid-1980's Frank is a reputable New Hampshire ski salesman living a stable middle-class life with his wife and two teenage children. When he volunteers for a Quaker peace delegation traveling to Helsinki and Leningrad during the tense final years of the Cold War his journey promises little more than earnest conversations about the dangers of nuclear war.But before he even leaves home, language lessons with a young Russian migr begin to awaken new desires and curiosities - about art, music, language and love. Once overseas, an encounter with a beautiful Finnish woman leads to an impassioned, long-term correspondence and further unsettles his carefully ordered life. As his travels unfold across Finland and the Soviet Union the landscapes, people and ideas he encounters begin to reshape his understanding of himself and the life he thought he knew.Spanning continents and decades Love from Afar: Finland is a reflective and deeply emotional human story about longing, moral choices and the surprising moments that can alter a life forever.PRAISE FOR Love from Afar: FinlandAn absorbing Finnish-American love story with echoes of Strauss’ “Four Last Songs” and Saariaho’s “Love from Afar.” Darting from one era to another, from one country to another, it exalts and laments the shifting landscapes of love in all its varieties. This book is so poignant it may just break your heart.Dan Cryer, author of Being Alive and Having to Die: The Spiritual Odyssey of Forrest Church; former Newsday book critic Love From Afar reimagines the theme of the Finnish opera L’amour de Loin as an American falls rapidly and deeply in love with a Finnish woman. The reader learns much about the history of Finland, especially the many wars that have wracked our country in the twentieth century. Though we may be skeptical about our repeated selection as the happiest country in the world, the protagonist of this interesting story is not, as readers see Suomi through his blue-white eyes.Juhani Eskola, former Director-General of the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare In Love From Afar, Ford von Reyn tells a bittersweet tale of two people first brought together by chance and then kept separate by circumstances. Frank is American, Immi is Finnish, and both have other attachments, yet they will weave a durable and touching connection through the medium of words. The book evokes an era that now feels almost lost, the time when people communicated deeply in written correspondence. Von Reyn’s affection for Finland is palpable in the story and upon finishing the book, readers may find themselves wanting to travel there themselves.Edith Forbes, author of Alma Rose and The Lawnmower Lady Ford von Reyn’s debut novel is a love affair with Finland, born out of the serendipitous encounter between middleaged Frank and Immi, who both outgrew the partners they once pledged to. Their fragile bond grows through letters, phone calls, and rare fleshandblood meetings. A polymath, von Reyn braids opera, nuclear disarmament, northern European history, and infectious disease (he is an epidemiologist by training) into a taut, haunting tale of longing and unfulfilled love.Ted Levin, author of The Promise of Sunrise: Finding Solace in a Broken World and America's Snake and winner of the Burroughs Medal for exemplary nature writing ABOUT THE AUTHORFord von Reyn is Professor of Medicine (Infectious Disease and International Health) at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth. He practiced primary care and infectious disease at the Concord Clinic from 1977-1988 and served on the Board of the Concord Community Music School. He has served as State Epidemiologist for New Mexico and as an epidemiologist with the World Health Organization at the inception of their AIDS Program. His Dartmouth research on tuberculosis and HIV led to a longstanding collaboration with colleagues in Finland - and to participation in the country’s cross-country ski marathons. He continues to study the Finnish language, drawn to its unique harmonies and intricate declensions. He and his wife Sunny live on a dead-end dirt road in rural Vermont with their dog, Phebe, three Nigerian dwarf goats, and a Finnish sauna. This is his debut novel.
