Mona’s Eyes

The sensational French novel about love and beauty that has taken the world by storm Fifty-two weeks. That's all the time Mona has left to learn about beauty before she loses her eyesight forever. Fifty-two works of art. Every Wednesday, Mona's grandfather picks her up after school and takes her to see a great work of art. Fifty-two chapters. Together, on their visit to Paris' museums, Mona and her grandfather will experience enchantment and sadness. Above all, they will grow ever closer and learn to lean on each other. From Botticelli to Basquiat, Mona will discover not only the power of art, but also the meaning of generosity, doubt, melancholy, and loss. A profound, beautifully crafted novel about the fullness of life and an enthralling guide to the world's most renowned art, Mona's Eyes is a moving story about the bond between a young girl and her grandfather. Review: "A rare book - poignant, wise and full of wonder." * Louisa Treger, author of The Paris Muse * "Art historian Schlesser's vibrant English-language debut frames a survey of classical Western art with the story of a Parisian man supporting his 10-year-old granddaughter after her sudden bout of temporary blindness... Schlesser seamlessly interweaves the art lessons with Mona's story, which concludes with an explanation for the cause of her blindness. Readers of Jostein Gaarder's Sophie's World will love this." * Publishers Weekly * "Mona's Eyes is gentle, bold, poetic, poignant and overall, utterly magnificent. I'm struggling to fully sum up how much I have loved reading this, but I think this has quickly become one of my favourite books that I've read this year." * Charlotte Gowans, Waterstones * "Schlesser expertly blurs the line between art history and fiction to create a heartfelt story about peoples' relationship to the world and to others. Told in simple terms, yet educational and expressive, the book evokes the same experience as other classics like 'Sophie's World' by Jostein Gaarder." * Odie Lafferty, Hodges Figgis * "This incredibly buzzy debut is something like if an acclaimed art historian had written All the Light We Cannot See... It feels passionate and engaging and really captures the freshness and wonder of understanding art, the world, growing up, through the eyes of a child." * Miriam Gordis, Albertine Bookstore, New York * "An ode to beauty and wisdom." * Le Parisien * "It's an earthquake. A seismic shift in the world of publishing." * Le Figaro * "...makes you want to run to the museum. Better than Emily in Paris." * Telerama * "Fabulous!" * France Inter * "Mona's Eyes is not only a novel about art; it is also a universal tale." * La Croix * "A brilliant book." * Telematin * "A tender, absolutely captivating book." * La grande librairie * "Wonderful and poignant." * Courrier Picard * Author Biography: Thomas Schlesser is an art historian, professor at Ecole Polytechnique, and Director of the Hartung-Bergman Foundation in Antibes. He's the author of some fifteen books, and is particularly interested in the relations between art and politics in the 19th and 20th centuries. Hildegarde Serle graduated in French from Oxford University. After working as a newspaper subeditor in London for many years, she obtained the Chartered Institute of Linguists Diploma in Translation. For Europa Editions, she has translated Christelle Dabos' Mirror Visitor series and the novels of Valerie Perrin.