Starring David Tennant and Emilia Fox, Love Virtually by Austrian novelist Daniel Glattauer is a thoroughly modern epistolary novel with one difference – its protagonists Emmi Rothner and Leo Leike communicate exclusively by email.
The European answer to You’ve got Mail.
Two million copies sold in Germany to date. And bought by thirty-five publishers around the world, Love Virtually by Austrian novelist Daniel Glattauer, is well on the way to becoming a global publishing phenomenon.
They “meet” when Emmi mistakenly sends an e-mail to Leo’s inbox. A romance ensues that allows them to live out a shared secret life far removed from their day-to-day existences. But to what extent does it rely on fantasy and escapism, and will it survive a real-life meeting?
The problem is…Emmi (a modern Madame Bovary) is married….
Have email, Facebook, texting and the like created a generation of isolated young people who prefer to communicate remotely – who may be in fact afraid to engage in face to face contact to find love? Is it possible to fall in love with someone you’ve never met? Does a virtual affair ‘count’ as adultery? What are the implications of the fact that we can pretend to be anyone in cyberspace?
Adapted by Eileen Horne.
Produced by Clive Brill
A Pacificus production for BBC Radio 4.
Suggested Listening Level : CAE, CPE, B2 to C2 (upper-intermediate to advanced), IELTS 6.5 or up
