Lovers in the Fog

By: Hamlet Sarkissian

Narrated by: David Cooley

Length: 6 hrs and 49 mins

Publisher's summary

To give the listener true cinematic experience, this audiobook has been designed with movie quality sound effects by Christopher Harvengt and Charles Maynes and an original score by legendary guitar player Steve Hunter. Original cover art by Jonathan Davenport and Andrew Cremeans.

Set in the late 80s, Hamlet Sarkissian’s Lovers in the Fog is told by the candid voice of human rights attorney Luke Forsyth who embarks on a solo drive up the east coast of the United States to rendezvous with the love of his life, a mystery woman who went missing a decade before.

As Luke’s obsessive journey unfolds, the foggy road provides Luke with an empty canvas upon which he paints his memories, desires and deepest fears. His old love affair, his young family, his efforts to extricate dissidents from Gorbachev’s Russia, his run-ins with the KGB are vividly recounted and parsed in order to filter truth from reality. A life-changing revelation awaits Luke at the end of his trip.

©2019 Hamlet Sarkissian (P)2019 Hamlet Sarkissian

Critic reviews

"A new, fresh and unique voice, Hamlet Sarkissian explores the human condition in the best traditions of modern existentialistic literature, allowing his charismatic characters to shine through with heroism, despite their tragic circumstances. Love, politics, morality, collectivism and individualism are all fair game in this timely and profound novel and the most cinematic audio book.” (American TV actor, producer and director, David Boreanaz, known for his roles of vampire-turned-private investigator “Angel” on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, FBI Special Agent “Seeley Booth” on the comedy-drama series Bones and “Jason Hayes” in the military drama series, SEAL Team.

“Lovers in the Fog is a terrific journey! Seemingly ripped from the headlines, it keeps you on the edge of your seat. And with its visual style, the unique audio-book is aching to be a movie. Bravo, Mr. Sarkissian!” (Cult indie filmmaker Larry Cohen, subject of the recent documentary King Cohen, creator of The Invaders and Branded TV series, director of ground-breaking films Bone, Black Caesar, It’s Alive and The Stuff, screenwriter for major studio films like Phone Booth and Cellular.

A unique listening experience

Lovers in the Fog is not your normal audiobook, in that the author and the production company took great pains to make listening more akin to a film-like experience. There is original music playing throughout, no doubt carefully chosen to fit each particular scene, laughter when characters laugh, the sounds of windshield wipers, etc. For some that may greatly heighten the experience. I found it a bit distracting and sometimes downright irritating. The story is not particularly linear, which in a text often leads me to flip back and reread certain parts; I'm tempted to try "reading" this to see if I like it more in a printed format. Because though I've given four stars, I'm really generously rounding up from three. As a lover of romance, I found the "love" stories in this book (one primary, the other secondary) to be its weakest points. When the author focussed on the protagonist's work as a human rights lawyer, he had my full attention, even when some of the descriptions were hard to hear. He also suggested different perspectives on the fall of the Soviet Union, especially concerning Gorbachev and some of the early immigrants to the west following the break-up of that country, which I found fascinating (and at times heart-wrenching) and worthy of more thoughtful consideration. But as to the "lovers" in the fog and the husband and wife most decidedly not in any meteorological fog--I was honestly left just shaking my head. I am grateful to the author for gifting me a copy of this audiobook. I have voluntarily left this review and will be interested in looking at other things he might write in the future.