No Two Persons - Erica Bauermeister

Fiction

Rating: 7.5/10

One book. Nine readers. Ten changed lives.

Alice has always wanted to be a writer. Her talent is innate, but her stories remain detached, until a devasting event breaks her apart and she creates a stunning debut novel.

Her words find their way to readers, each of whom consumes them in different ways. Each of them finds within her words new pathways opening in their lives. A young woman comes to the realization that the story she tells about herself is an armor she wields against being truly known. A man resists the knowledge that there are things you can’t see until you are ready to really look. A woman turns the pages into a sculpture, never reading a single word on them.

A beautifully written and inventive book that reminds readers from all walks of life that nothing is as powerful as a story.

Footnote: there are an abundance of lovely passages about reading and books in this novel, allow me to share one of my favourites.

“At some point a story is written down, and that’s the book readers hold in their hands. But the story isn’t done, because it goes on to live in the readers’ minds, in a way that is unique to each of them. We are all caretakers of the stories. Writers are just the lucky ones that get to know them first.”

Book Pairing(s): Bookshop Of Yesterdays by Amy Meyerson, The Reading List by Sara Nisha Adams, The Dinner List by Rebecca Searle