One Station Away by Olaf Olafsson
This novel follows neurologist Magnus as he deals with the loss of his lover, the possibilities of an unidentified, seemingly unconscious woman being locked-in, and the resurgance of his mother's classical piano career.
Magnus is a man who really keeps to himself. He doesn't tell the people around him much of his personal life; he doesn't tell his family much about his personal or professional life; and he resents sharing his lover's time with anyone else.
As we gradually learn about his lover, and her reticence as well, we see that like him, she felt deeply, but didn't share a lot.
Magnus distanced himself from his parents years ago, and knows that his father has always been passionate about his mother's piano career, and as her agent has always been her biggest fan. When he finds his father excited at an uplift in her career, he is at first reluctant to believe in it, but finds himself gradually coming around as one of his coworkers, a man knowledgable about this aspect of music, appears to appreciate her work. He hopes that the cycle of rise and fall that has existed for her will be broken. From her, we see little, as she seems a quiet unassuming woman in person, and we don't get a sense of how she feels about everything.
At work, Magnus is interested in the experiences of the patients that he and his team have studied as they research aspects of those patients outwardly unconscious, but having some sense of the world going on around them. He begins to develop a rapport with the most recent patient, but his team begins to feel that he is hiding things from them.
This is a strange book, about a man that ultimately one doesn't quite understand, always, as the title says, one station away.
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