by Matt Thorne (Author)
Becca Coles is a cinema buff in her late twenties. So is Chris Paley. Becca sees herself as a femme fatale (more Linda Fiorentino in The Last Seduction than Glenn Close in Fatal Attraction ). Chris, a movie reviewer, has recently given up action films for romantic comedies and is writing a book on love in the movies. Becca is in a relationship. Chris has just finished one. They have never met. When Becca rents her flat out to Chris via an estate agent friend, everything changes. Soon she's snooping around the flat while Chris is out watching previews. She then sets up a chance romantic encounter with her unwitting tenant. But after Becca has taken to surreptitiously trailing Chris, he begins to suspect that his life has been scripted out for him, and when he starts trailing her it leads to an unexpected finale...A love story played out between two people fascinated by film, Dreaming Of Strangers explores the tension between romance and real life, examining whether it's possible to experience the fantasy life of a favourite movie, or if reality is always destined to disappoint.
Format: Paperback
Pages: 272
Publisher: W&N
Published: 13 Jul 2000
ISBN 10: 0297646575
ISBN 13: 9780297646570
Book Overview: Thorne's first novel, Tourist, was longlisted for the Guardian Fiction Prize Excellent reviews for Eight Minutes Idle: 'Thorne is an extraordinary writer' Independent on Sunday 'Marvellously comic' The Times 'A wonderfully lucid novel. Thorne's breezy, poppy narrative style, careless cruel humour and refusal to take too seriously such serious matters as work, love and death are glorious to read' Daily Telegraph 'Not only does he pull it off, he does it with such elegant prose that it is a pleasure to read' Literary Review Eight Minutes Idle film rights acquired by Film Four Backlist to be reissued in Phoenix PB