A Short Walk Through a Wide World
A Novel
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4.3 • 79 Ratings
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
“Imagine The Life of Pi, The Alchemist, and The Midnight Library rolled into one fantastical fable.” —The New York Times Book Review * “An epic adventure…rich with all the possibilities the world can hold.” —People
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A dazzlingly epic debut that charts the incredible, adventurous life of one woman as she journeys the globe trying to outrun a mysterious curse that will destroy her if she stops moving.
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...
Fiercely independent and hopeful, yet full of longing, Aubry Tourvel is an unforgettable character fighting her way through a world of wonders to find a place she can call home. A spellbinding and inspiring story about discovering meaning in a life that seems otherwise impossible, A Short Walk Through a Wide World reminds us that it’s not the destination, but rather the journey—no matter how long it lasts—that makes us who we are.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
In this quirky fantasy, a woman is cursed, or blessed—or both—to travel the world. On her way home from school in 1880s Paris, nine-year-old Aubry Tourvel is struck by a strange affliction: She must keep moving and never return to the same place twice, or else she will die. Thus begins a curiously mystical odyssey through cities, towns, and all the wild places of the Earth. Aubry becomes tough and self-sufficient because—thanks to a peculiar magic she can’t quite explain—she can traverse challenging environments that might kill someone else. But is this actually an illness, or something else? Will Aubry run out of places to travel to? And will there ever be someone else whom she can travel with? Debut novelist Douglas Westerbeke has created a lovely parable that profoundly examines ideas about things that don’t last, things that do, and the things that we leave behind for others to find. It’s beautiful and sad, but ultimately uplifting.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Librarian Westerbeke combines elements of Vernian adventure and Borgesian fantasy in his enthralling debut about a woman who must travel constantly in order to survive. In 1885 Paris, nine-year-old Aubry Tourvel, suddenly racked with pain, begins bleeding from her eyes, nose, and lips. After visits to myriad doctors yield no diagnosis, trial and error proves she becomes deathly ill if she stays anywhere for more than a few days or visits the same location twice. Her mother joins her on the road for three years, until Aubry, seeing her exhaustion, steals away alone one night. Aubry, who eventually circles the globe five times, learns to hunt for food, creates a book of pictures that helps her overcome language barriers, and grows accustomed to leaving even her favorite people and places behind. She forms brief but deep bonds with those she meets and even falls intensely if also briefly in love with an accountant while on a train to Vladivostok and an Indian prince while somewhere in Central Asia. Though Aubry speaks openly about her strange affliction, she keeps to herself the moments when, facing dangers or impassable obstacles such as the Himalayan mountains, she finds doors to vast subterranean libraries in which time and space seem to loosen. Capturing each moment of Aubry's sweeping odyssey with extraordinary vividness, Westerbeke's poignant epic speaks to the challenges of knowing oneself and others in a world of endless change. This is unforgettable.
Customer Reviews
Suddenly, I feel like screaming
I enjoyed this book immensely. I hung on every word, because every word felt precious and personal to the characters journey. It is very rare to read a novel in which no word feels wasted. But, a side note, Please! For the love of God! Excise the word Suddenly from your vocabulary. It is a useless word that adds nothing to the story, and it is a contrived literary devise utilized by writers who lack confidence in their ability to show the urgency of a particular moment. You sir, used it several hundred times. That being said, I enjoyed your first novel and look forward to reading your second.
Excellent journey…
This is a story woven from the main character’s somewhat unique life experiences. The threads are fit together expertly to form an intriguing and well told tale. If you enjoy exotic tales and a bit of mysticism and are game to be taken on a journey, give this one a try.
There is a solid presence in the voice of this debut author. I, for one, look forward to what comes next from Douglas.
Long an ultimately boring - why?
I don’t understand the point of this story