Reading Skywards – Your Friendly Bookshelf

INFORMATION ABOUT THIS BOOK
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Avid Reader Press / Simon & Schuster
Publication date ‏ : ‎ April  2024
Format:  Hardcover, Paperback, audiobook, and ebook
Print length ‏ : ‎ 400 pages
Genre:  Literary Fiction, Magical Realism

MY PERSONAL OPINION OF “A SHORT WALK THROUGH A WIDE WORLD”

I bought this book during a sale at Barnes and Noble. The title and cover called my attention; the premise was intriguing. I am so happy I have this book. It was fascinating to read it. It was full of stories, places, adventure, loneliness, sadness, and mystery. I have to admit, even though the end gave me peace, it was not easy to understand. I had to read it several times to believe it was a good and deserving ending for Aubry Tourvel.

Aubry Tourvel was a character that we can rarely find in books. She was courageous where she was weak, and strong where she was lonely; she was resourceful, and just flat out, persistent. Aubry Tourvel was not sure what she believed or what she wanted, but she kept on moving, through the world, through time, alone. It was fascinating to hear her stories of love, anguish, family, pain, and yes, at times joy. It is a story that I am sure will stay with me for a while.

Oh, what a great book, with meaningful a touching writing. Tender and hard. A wonderful story.

PREMISE OF THE BOOK AS FOUND IN AMAZON / GOODREADS:

Paris, 1885: Aubry Tourvel, a spoiled and stubborn nine-year-old girl, comes across a wooden puzzle ball on her walk home from school. She tosses it over the fence, only to find it in her backpack that evening. Days later, at the family dinner table, she starts to bleed to death.

When medical treatment only makes her worse, she flees to the outskirts of the city, where she realizes that it is this very act of movement that keeps her alive. So begins her lifelong journey on the run from her condition, which won’t allow her to stay anywhere for longer than a few days—nor return to a place where she’s already been.

From the scorched dunes of the Calanshio Sand Sea to the snow-packed peaks of the Himalayas; from a bottomless well in a Parisian courtyard, to the shelves of an infinite underground library, we follow Aubry as she learns what it takes to survive and ultimately, to truly live. But the longer Aubry wanders and the more desperate she is to share her life with others, the clearer it becomes that the world she travels through may not be quite the same as everyone else’s.

MY RATING: 4.4

QUOTES FROM THE BOOK

“There are things on this earth that only exist because you have beheld them. If you weren’t there, they would never have been.”

“Scholars may study, historians may research, readers may read, but nobody knows more about today, this very day, than the person who lives it.” 

“If you can’t make your life meaningful, make it extraordinary.” 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Douglas Westerbeke was a librarian at one of the largest libraries in the US. He has spent the last decade on the local panel of the International Dublin Literary Award, which inspired him to write his own book. He lives in Ohio.

Bibliography:

• A Short Walk Through a Wide World