“The Writer. The story on Alice’s computer screen had been finding its way into words for more than five years, or maybe forever. Over that time, it had grown, changed, creaked, flown, gone silent and then gained its voice again, its plot taking unexpected paths, its characters turning into people she hadn’t thought they would be, just as she had.”
I’m Betty Martin with "Martin’s Must Reads" and those are the opening lines to Erica Bauermeister’s newest novel No Two Persons. Alice writes a novel about a boy growing up and titles it Theo. In the next chapter titled "The Assistant," Lara is the assistant at the publishing house that discovers Theo and insures that it is published. The subsequent chapters take place over nine years, each one devoted to a different reader of the novel and their reaction to it.
There’s the handsome actor, who due to a developing skin condition, gives up acting and becomes an audiobook narrator. There’s the artist who uses the pages in a sculpture; a homeless teenager who survives by hanging out and reading at the library; a bookseller in search of love; a widower who connects with his wife via the notes she left in the margins; a film intimacy coordinator who reconnects with her husband after listening to the audiobook. Each person’s life is altered after coming in contact with the book but no two persons have the same reaction.
As the book jacket says, “Together, their stories reveal how books can affect us in the most beautiful and unexpected of ways - and how we are all more closely connected to one another than we might think.”
If you’re looking for an example of how books can change your life, then you must read No Two Persons by Erica Bauermeister.
