This is a great book in german. It is difficult to read tough

This is a compilation of letters from Floria Aemilia to Augustine, and it reveals quite another side of him. Anyone who has read his Confessiones cannot help but think what a boring life he lead .. however, after having read these letters, you realize that that was just one side of his life. These letters are moving and very interesting. True love letters from another time - yet they feel timeless. Surely such a love story could have taken place today, although the obstacles would have been different.

The foreward about how these letters came into Jostein Gaarder's possession is also very interesting - a dream for booklovers coming true!

I read this book entirely in one sitting. It is short and easy to read, and shows an often unseen side to St. Augustine. I had not read Augustine's Confessions before this, but I was unable to understand everything. Floria's letter quotes from Confessions many times so you can understand what she is talking about. I found this book to be rather moving, telling the romantic but doomed love story of a woman and man who later became one of God's servants, but at the time was just a man in love. Interesting from a historical perspective as well.

I devoured this strangely moving book in about two hours, stranded inside a car during one of my former boyfriend's windsurfing forays - and closed it with a curious mixture of lingering anguish and that joy that sometimes comes with absolute recognition. The love story depicted here is very touching and anything but predictable. Some deep truths concerning love, endurance and the making of choices, are conveyed here through Floria's long-vanished voice.