One Station Away

by Olaf Olafsson

From the critically acclaimed Olaf Olafsson, an intimate yet sweeping story of a New York neurologist and the three women who change his life

An overlooked pianist who finally receives fraught success after decades of disappointment. An elusive dancer whose untimely death her fiancé is desperate to untangle. A mysterious patient who is comatose after a violent accident.

These are the three women who animate Olaf Olafsson’s brilliantly rendered One Station Away. Magnus, a New York neurologist—son to one, lover to another, and doctor to a third—is the thread that binds these women’s stories together as he navigates relationships defined by compromise and misunderstanding, guilt and forgiveness, and, most of all, by an obsessive attempt to communicate—to understand and to be understood, to love and to be loved.

A deeply affecting family tale, a heart-rending love story that spans the globe, and a suspenseful drama at the edge of the mystery of life and death, One Station Away is a profoundly moving story of memory, identity, and misconnection, a novel of haunting power and lasting insight.

Genres: Fiction, Literary Fiction, Contemporary, Book Club, Mystery, Adult, Adult Fiction

299 pages, Paperback

First published December 5, 2017

About the author

Olaf Olafsson was born in Reykjavik, Iceland in 1962. He studied physics as a Wien Scholar at Brandeis University. He is the author of three previous novels, The Journey Home, Absolution and Walking Into the Night, and a story collection, Valentines. His books have been published to critical acclaim in more than twenty languages. He is the recipient of the O. Henry Award and the Icelandic Literary Award, was shortlisted for the Frank O’Connor Prize, and has twice been nominated for the IMPAC Award. He is the Executive Vice President of Time Warner and he lives in New York City with his wife and three children.
http://www.facebook.com/olafsson.author

Reviews

[Geonn Cannon · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars. The story of three remarkable women... as told through a guy who happens to know them all. As a result, all three of the women are kept at arms length, painted with the same brush, explored through conjecture rather than who they actually are. Genuinely good writing, but to say this is a story about three women is misleading. It's a story about a guy who spends the whole book trying to figure out women he knows without actually letting them speak half the time.

[Jennifer Blankfein · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading this book I was pleasantly surprised…it was not what I expected, knowing the author, Olaf Olafsson, a successful businessman, is the Executive Vice President of Time Warner and was responsible for introducing Sony PlayStation.

One Station Away is a thoughtful story about Magnus, a Yale neurologist, and three important women in his life; his patient, his fiancé and his mother. He conducts research on head trauma patients who appear to have no mental capabilities but in fact may be conscious and communicative. He spends many evenings holding his patient’s hand and feeling powerless to help as he thinks of ways to try and connect with her. Magnus struggles with the recent loss of his

beloved fiancé, as his unconditional love for her may have allowed her to hide something devastating from him. He was so thankful to be in a relationship with her, he believes he overlooked now obvious indication of a problem and cannot come to terms with the fact that, as a doctor, he missed the signs. Magnus feels guilty about his less than perfect relationship with his aging parents and grapples with feelings of mutual rejection from his mother. She is a professional musician and during his formative years up until now, Magnus has not been supportive of her accomplishments and often felt he was a burden and unwanted by his mother.

One Station Away gives us a peak into Magnus’s thoughts and emotions as he replays interactions and revisits research regarding the immobile patient while he desperately attempt to connect with her. He continually recollects time spent with his deceased fiancé to uncover informations that will help him to understand her, and he repeatedly thinks of childhood memories of his recently musically recognized mother, to come to terms with their relationship, with the not so natural desire to recognize her new found success she seemed to achieve overnight with the release of some classical piano recordings. Past memories are replayed in Magnus’s mind as he tries to detect where he could have connected more fully with each of these women. His medical prowess, his sensitive actions exemplifying his feelings of love, and his desire for connection all make me care about Magnus. He is attempting to be in touch with his feelings and has good sense but feels an overwhelming need to not let anyone down. This human story of memories and relationships examines Magnus’s great depth of character and I highly recommend it!


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[Marjorie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Magnus is a New York City neurologist. He’s had three women in his life who have had a profound effect on him – his mother, Margaret, who is a pianist who has finally found fame; his fiancé whose time with him is far too short and one of his patients who is comatose. The author expertly weaves the stories of these three women into a compelling and masterful book.

The gorgeously told love story between Magnus and Malena touched my heart and then broke it. Their relationship is brought so vividly to life. The author’s delving into the relationship between Magnus and his parents is told meticulously and expertly and I could feel his confusion and longings so clearly. I found the medical studies concerning Magnus’ patient to be fascinating and suspenseful. In each area of Magnus’ world, the author brings us his powerful and insightful interpretation.

I’m looking forward to reading more of his work. Mr. Olafsson is the Vice President of Time Warner and is best known for his introduction of PlayStation while working at Sony. I wish he’d devote all of his time to writing but there are a few past books of his already published that I’ll be getting soon.

Most highly recommended.

This book was given to me by the publisher in return for an honest review.

[Erin C · Rating 2 out of 5]

The story of three remarkable women. As mansplained to the reader by the main character, Magnus. As a result, the three remarkable women are mere sketches and held at arm's length. I found Magnus boring and trite and wanted to know more about the women and less about him.

[Kasa Cotugno · Rating 5 out of 5]

Without any preamble, the book begins with a questionable act. Why does the narrator choose to have himself paralyzed, and what purpose does it serve? This is only the first episode in a book loaded with questionable motivations and some unanswered questions. Magnus Colin Conyngham tells his story, not always reliably. His life has been filled with devotees to the arts, beginning with his self absorbed mother whose disappointment in his not being a natural pianist results in an upbringing while not cruel, more distant than most. He turns to science ("Science has always been my escape. The place I went when I felt cornered.") Fleeing his native Britain for the States, he pursues his vocation as a neurologist, forging a life in Manhattan with his worklife being spent in a research facility in Connecticut. This reverse commute is symptomatic for how his life unravels in unconventional ways. The love of his life, a dancer originally from Argentina provides more questions than answers, and their love is one of the most poignant encountered in a work of fiction recently. Because the reader finds himself caring about these people, despite their flaws. The story weave around these two influences on Magnus's life as he and his team attempt to analyze the reasons behind a nameless patient they've been sent by a facility in New Mexico, a comatose female patient. So much is rich in this story, including the importance of connection through music. It carries with it a haunting quality, and thanks to this book, I plan on reading more of Olaffson's work.

[Cherise Wolas · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this an intriguing read. The book copy presents it as three women's stories, but really it's the story of Magnus, a research neurologist, and his relationships with four women -- his mother, Margaret, his lover, Malena, his research colleague, Simone, and an unnamed woman in a coma. Is the fact that Magnus is Icelandic/British account for how he views and experiences life from a distance? Is it his mother's fault -- a classical pianist whose career may have been short circuited by motherhood? (Although we learn more about his father, Vincent). Is his research into the brains of coma patients, trying to communicate with them, the best he can do emotionally? It's not an easy book to get to the heart of. I didn't expect it to be a page turner, but it was. There's a coolness to the prose, which is fitting. I'm not sure what I take away from this novel, but I think it will stay in my mind, which, to me, is the mark of something very fine.

[Dana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Čitala sam neke prethodne Olafsonove knjige (Restauracija, Odlazak u noć) i više su mi dopale - da li zato što između trenutka njihovog čitanja i sadašnjeg leži jedno 200 knjiga i par godina iskustva više, ili zato što se sad odao proseku i nekakvom zanatskom otaljavanju - tek, ova knjiga mi je sasvim prosečna. Verovatno je problem u glavnom junaku koji govori u prvom licu na čijoj ličnosti, odnosima sa drugim ljudima, pre svega ženama sve treba da počiva - a on je jedan neodlučan, mlak, neupečatljiv tip pa se zateknem da me nekako nije baš mnogo briga ni za njega ni za njegova unutrašnja proživljavanja ni spoljašnje drame. A kad se to ukloni, ne ostane mnogo toga.

[Heather Dolbeare · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have no idea what the author was trying to say in this boring novel of a man who has a talent of obsessing over four (not sure why the book's description mentions three women, there are clearly four women in this man's life) for whom he treats more as after thoughts to his impulsive horrible decisions. This book just didn't work on any level. Magnus the narrator was just bland. While the women in his life may have been interesting, we only see them distantly from Magnus' snooze perspective. The book just didn't go anywhere.

[Sanja_Sanjalica · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a book of silences, misinterpretations, lost and gained chances and communication in general, with ourselves and others. How well do we know people in our lives? How do we affect them? Such a wonderful, calm style with so many little moments of pondering and just life. There are some twists to keep you occupied, but the silent moments in between make this book a gem for me.

[Lobstergirl · Rating 3 out of 5]

Author Olaf Olafsson is a full-time executive at Time Warner who was responsible for the introduction of the Sony Playstation (presumably not the same station referred to in the title...) and the development of the CD-ROM. His father is a well-known Icelandic novelist, though, so apparently fiction-writing is in his blóð.

One Station Away is an intriguing read, with a few dubious plot points and some false notes. The narrative is nonlinear to an unnecessarily confusing degree, although by the end it doesn't especially matter.

First-person narrator Magnus is a neurologist who works in a research setting with comatose patients suffering from traumatic brain injuries. Magnus lives in Manhattan and works in Connecticut; his parents still live in England, where he was raised. He isn't fond of them. His mother Margaret always resented him for disrupting what she believed would have been a brilliant career as a classical pianist; there is also the suggestion that she may have Asperger's. He has always felt distant from her. And his father Vincent acts like a small-time fraud, pouring cheap sparkling wine into Dom Perignon bottles to serve to dinner guests, while sycophantically supporting Margaret in what may, or may not be, her delusions about how musically talented she is.

Magnus attends his mother's 70th birthday party in England, where she astonishes the small group of guests with a brilliant rendition of Rachmaninoff's Second piano sonata. The surprise reveal at the party is that his father has been secretly making recordings of hours upon hours of Margaret playing the great piano repertoire, which will be released on CDs. The CDs get excellent reviews.

Magnus spends the whole "present" of the novel in a grieving funk, because his girlfriend Malena, with whom he was madly in love, has died. Magnus had met Malena at a Shakespeare play he was attending with a colleague, Simone, who unknown to him had a big crush on him. Once he spotted Malena he was fixated on her, and got her phone number. They had a whirlwind romance. But Malena was mysterious and sometimes pulled away emotionally, not wanting Magnus to be too involved with her home life in Buenos Aires. On their vacations together, Malena would sometimes trip over her feet. Too late to help her, Magnus realizes she has motor neurone disease. She leaves for Argentina to "rehabilitate," but he never sees her again. One day her sister calls and says that Malena is dead.

Shortly after this, a new comatose patient arrives at the hospital: a young woman severely injured in a motorcycle crash in New Mexico, possibly an illegal immigrant, possibly involved in the drug trade. Magnus becomes somewhat obsessed with her, and we realize that this woman has become a proxy for Malena. The staff administers MRIs to "Adela" to figure out what brain activity might be happening, but after-hours Magnus conducts his own, secret MRIs, asking Adela all sorts of questions, believing that Adela trusts him more than the others. Adela "tells" him things (the MRI lights up certain parts of her brain) - she's from South America, she doesn't want to talk about why she's in the U.S., about the accident, she doesn't want her family contacted, she doesn't want him to know her name. (This mirrors Malena's reluctance to fully involve Magnus in her family life.) Finally, she "tells" him that she wants to die. (Adela's communications via MRI seem to be based on this Scientific American/Nature article: https://www.scientificamerican.com/ar...)

The novel has two big reveals: the first is that an audio enthusiast who frequents classical music online forums discovers that some, or possibly many or all, of Margaret's new recordings exactly match those of famous pianists such as Vladimir Ashkenazy (who in the novel actually has a cameo, in a scene where he inadvertently humiliates Margaret in a music class in Iceland), Minoru Nojima, Maurizio Pollini, and Dinu Lipatti. Olafsson has said that this storyline is based on the plagiarisms of Joyce Hatto. Hatto's case was intriguing and demented, but the problem with the novel's portrayal is that Vincent, the supposed mastermind of this sophisticated tape-editing scheme, is a technology neophyte who can barely work an iphone.

The second reveal is that Simone, as well as Magnus, has been "told" that Adela wants to die, and so she suffocates her and then runs away to France. This is a bit odd and comes out of the blue, but it certainly wraps up the novel conclusively.

It's extremely difficult for novelists (even the best ones) to write about classical music convincingly or meaningfully, and Olafsson fails just like most. "Why had I never allowed myself to feel the mournful tenderness of my mother's playing, the boldness with which she tackled fear and despair?" On the online forum someone writes about Margaret's "intuition, clarity, and perfect balance, her search for beauty and transcendence, the profound stillness concealed between the notes, imbuing them with meaning and intensity." This is just insipid and banal; if we got this from a newspaper critic they would be thrown off a balcony.

Errata: Olafsson writes that Magnus' mother "had often practiced Schubert's piano concertos," but Schubert didn't write any piano concertos.

[Karen · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was terrible. I don't know what book the reviewers on the back cover read, but it wasn't the book I read. The author had this terrible habit of switching scenes, time frames and characters from one paragraph to another without even the consideration of putting a couple of dots between paragraphs. That causes you to say, "Wait! Where are we??" "What time frame is this??" He may considered this edgy, I considered it very annoying as it pulled me out of the book every time. I would have normally quit the book but I thought the plot had potential. It turned out not to have any potential.

[Magdelanye · Rating 3 out of 5]

It starts off well, the dry humour of the semi-detached narrator is confident and soothing. The story of a man and the 3 main women in his life, an introspective journey I was preparing to share.
Gradually, though, I began to dislike this narrator, this somewhat supercilious ego, and by the end of the book, sadly, the fluid writing was overshadowed by the dinginess of the characters.

[Shazza Hoppsey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Why is this Icelandic writer so unknown outside of Iceland?

Another terrific read I kept having to ration. Another tale where so well drawn as you walk in the shoes of the protagonist - each quite different from the last.

PLEASE WRITE ANOTHER BOOK OLAF I have read everything available in English.

[Ken Fredette · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was taken aback in how this story was so noir in it's simplicity. Maybe that's why I gave it only three stars. Magnus didn't seem to connect Malena's clumsiness to her illness until a little while before she died, he was a physician. He also didn't know that Simone was hopelessly in love with him. And he didn't know that Simone may have committed a murder of a patient that they had smothered. Everything that happened seemed to be noir when it came to Magnus. Readers can makeup their own minds to whether or not Magnus was noir.

[Јуро Дива · Rating 2 out of 5]

Гњаважа од књиге.

[Val · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love it when I accidentally stumble across a great read. This short book blew me away! I was so sad when I finished it.

[Olive Sampson · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found this book confusing and superficial. The descriptions of Magnus's relationships with the women in his life were so very shallow that I never felt I really got to know anything about them or about him.

[Patricia Baker · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lots of mystery still left in this at the end for me...that's not a bad thing. I think it shows how little we understand of others.

[Roberta · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed analyzing and talking about this novel more than I did hovering over its cracked spine. While I was reading, it dragged. It felt flat. I kept waiting for some big drama, but instead it was a slow release of tightly contained pain—the beading and drip of blood on a cutter’s inner thigh.
I had skimmed the reviews, so I knew about the three women, and at first I wasn’t sure who they were counting, because there were actually four women. His mother, his girlfriend, his patient, and his colleague. All four relationships were plagued with an inability to communicate that created varying degrees of absence. The book wasn’t about the women. It was about how the empty shape they might have inhabited affected the narrator.
The way Olafson explores themes of absence and inability to communicate is intriguing. Magnus’ mother is so cold and distant that when he is injured as a child the only way she can think to comfort him is to play the piano with great feeling. A chunk of the plot is devoted to the sudden resurgence of her musical career and an ensuing controversy, but this is mainly relayed in conversations between Magnus and his father. The mother barely speaks.
Magnus’ girlfriend’s absence is literal, as she has died before the novel began. The intensity of the relationship Magnus describes doesn’t mesh with the way she withheld information about her terminal illness. Her death was a distant event, in another city with her family. Magnus is not involved and is only informed after the fact. It’s so out of balance with the purported love and closeness of the relationship that I’m expecting some reveal that will make it make sense.
Magnus’ patient, his research subject in a project exploring brain activity in comatose patients, is literally unable to communicate. Magnus is tender and caring with her. When, through his methods, she is able to communicate with the scientists, Magnus pretends not to understand, but what he is really doing is refusing to let her say what he doesn’t want to hear.
Magnus speaks of his female colleague in a tone that could be read as condescending or parental. He intimates that he is thoughtful enough to consider her temperament and orchestrate their interactions to keep from upsetting her. Well into the novel, the narrator reveals the source of the tension between the two of them, and it throws into question all your assumptions about their relationship.
And maybe that should make you ask even more questions. How reliable of a narrator is Magnus? If he was as close as he claimed with his girlfriend, why wasn’t he beside her when she died? This novel has so many intriguing ideas that the author examines from multiple angles. It’s been fun to pick it apart and wonder at the meaning of the different elements. This novel is full of pain and angst. His mother is cold and distant. The love of his life is dead. But the emotions never really reached me. Maybe it was the clinical tone of the narrator. Maybe Olafson did too good a job at creating a first-person narrator who has trouble communicating. I didn’t connect with the characters as I was reading, instead, I was looking for a way to make it all make sense. There was no surprise or reversal at the end, just a pile of clues and symbols to pick through and find your own meaning.

[Connie · Rating 1 out of 5]

Really hard to get into and it wasn't until the end that it peaked my interest. The main character was hard to like and the story line was confusing with some jumping around in time that wasn't always clear. If I wasn't reading it for a book club, I would have put it on my dnf shelf.

[Dre · Rating 4 out of 5]

The topics in this book were unique and interesting to me. Magnus was such a great character.

[Susan Lawrence · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was intrigued by this book and wanted to know where the story was going. Having finished, I’m still not sure where it went. Felt like it was partial stories strung together but in a pretty good way. Interesting

[Kelsey · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a lovely little refreshing read. It elegantly explored the themes such as the limitations of communication, medical ethics, and trust. I liked the short chapters and how they concisely told the story. I became very invested in Magnus's life events and felt a little bit worried in the end that he would end up becoming very lonely.

I think the book was misrepresented in the jacket blurb. It was not really about the connection between three women, but Magnus's struggle to truly communicate with them and the other people in his life. He learned Spanish to try to communicate better with Malena, but that seemed to only close her off more to him. He figured out how to ask the comatose woman questions, but that didn't mean she was always willing to answer them. He tried to make up for dismissing his mother for so long by learning to hear her through her piano playing only to find out she was a fraud. I notice that in some people's reviews, they wished to have learned more about the women, but I think that misses the point. We couldn't learn more about them, because of our narrator's limitations with communication - limitations that all people possess due to the nature of communication itself.

[Aleksandar Ćenan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Proza izvanredne lepote. Imao sam asocijacija na Bergmana i njegovu Jesenju sonatu. Majstor opisa i raspoloženja smeštenih u već jednu meni sasvim blisku olafsonovsku formu tako da se njegova poglavlja odmerene dužine približavaju lirskim prozama. Na neki način ovo je i roman o odrastanju. Psihološka studija odnosa glavnog junaka i žena koje figuriraju u njegovom životu: majka, ljubavnica, pacijentkinja i koleginica. Roman ima jasnu narativnu nit a ipak je sled sasvim lično dat kroz vizuru prvog lica. Glas tog lica je tih i nenametljiv te privlači čitaoca ovoj nepretencioznoj i sasvim uspeloj formi sa elementima toka svesti. Kroz prosede neurologa koji pokušava pristupiti pragu svesti svojih pacijenata dobili smo i uspelu metaforu mogućnosti naših dodira sa bliskim osobama, susretanjima i razilaženjima.

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 1\2 Stars. A slow moving yet beautifully written narrative of a man coming to an understanding of both his childhood and his relationships. Thoughtful and stirring

[Katherine · Rating 4 out of 5]

A story that beautifully unfolds and is also surprisingly suspenseful. This book has a storyline that I would not normally say lends itself to a page-turning book but I found myself not wanting to put it down and eagerly turning pages. The themes of love and communication flow through this story and I loved the how those themes are explored in different situation. I believe Olafsson did a magnificent job of using first person narration in this book and I am amazed at how real he made all of these characters. Although this is the first book I've read by Olaf Olafsson, it won't be my last.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

Understated to a fault. I felt like the entire book was a series of references to an overarching theme or plot that I complete missed out on. I became frustrated at the author's propensity to describe dialogue instead of recounting it, and the characters never seemed to act in a believable or understandable way.

[Verna LaBounty · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tangled relationships mixed with coma research.

[Carol Scheherazade · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cold. Strange and cold.

[B Brewer · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was the longest 4 days I recall in my life. I finished the book through sheer perseverance and willpower to not fail at my task. I cannot recommend the book in good conscience, but also cannot take stars away for warranted awards just from my own disappointment.

I rated this book based on content. Three stars for what the story held and that is generous. Had the content been ordered in any way and not a chaotic back and forth of jumbled thought, this book would have earned the three stars solidly and not from my kindness.

The main character, Magnus, is a self absorbed neurologist who works in research with patients stuck in comas. His research is interesting and one of the more intriguing parts of the novel. However you only get bits and spurts of the information and never explanation of the terms, so don’t get too excited. Magnus’s story revolves around 3 women and his relationship with each.

The 3 women include his mother (Margret), a female coworker (Simone) and his lover (Malena). Without ruining the story, convoluted as it is, he has strained relationships with all 3. Likely this is all due to his issues with his mother (both parents really) since childhood. I found by the end, I didn’t care about any of the women, especially his mother, or him for that matter. I wanted the book to end. The only person I liked is a side character named Anthony that has a small part, but seems a kind and worthwhile person.

Overall, I wish this hadn’t been my first book by this author as I have heard good things. However I doubt I’ll ever pick up another one of his books.