Starred review from January 1, 2024
DEBUT Aubry Tourvel's walk through the wide world begins in Paris in 1885 when she starts bleeding to death at dinner. She is nine years old and learns that she must keep moving to stay alive from this incurable, magical curse. Her travels take her from childhood to lonely maturity, during which she sees the entire world in brief, shallow, tantalizing sips and learns to survive at all costs. This is the tale of Aubry's journey, told in joy and heartbreak, in snippets to people all around the globe who are lucky to catch just a bit of her time along her way. In the loneliness of her constant motion, Aubry leads readers not just through her journey but also through her constant struggle to find meaning, along with hope and joy, no matter where she is or how often she has to leave places and people that she wishes she had a chance to love. VERDICT Readers of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab and Life of Pi by Yann Martel will fall in love with Aubry. Librarian Westerbeke's debut is highly recommended for anyone who enjoys armchair travel and stories that open wide to embrace every experience, even the sad ones.--Marlene Harris
Copyright 2024 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
Starred review from February 26, 2024
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. Agent: Alice Lutyens, Curtis Brown.
March 1, 2024
In 1885 Paris, a young girl contracts a mysterious disease that sends her on the journey of a lifetime. Aubry Tourvel is 9 when she and her sisters, Pauline and Sylvie, stumble across a strange well in a courtyard secreted between empty apartment buildings. The well is made of smooth gray stone, and its opening has been carved to resemble a face. The siblings assume it's a wishing well, and because the papers are full of terrible news, each resolves to sacrifice something precious for the greater good. Pauline drops in a gold chain to stop the socialists from bombing public buildings, and Sylvie gives up her doll so that Dr. Homais might cure syphilis. Aubry intends to ask for Mrs. Von Bingham's ailing baby to heal, but when the time comes, she refuses to relinquish her prized possession: a wooden puzzle ball she discovered in a dead man's driveway and that inexplicably finds her whenever they separate. That night, Aubry starts having seizures. She improves en route to the doctor, but upon heading home, begins bleeding from her nose, ears, and mouth. She soon realizes that to stay alive, she must keep moving, never to remain in one location for longer than three days or visit the same place twice. Part magical realism-laced travelogue, part love letter to the world, Westerbeke's extraordinary debut spans decades, unfolding via stories told by Aubry to those she meets while circumnavigating the globe. Wonder and a sense of loneliness infuse each telling, from a stint on a Greek fishing vessel, to a love affair on the Trans-Siberian Railroad, to solo sojourns in impossible libraries seemingly located outside of space and time. Striking set pieces, stunning character work, and evocative, insightful prose make every page worth savoring. A hopeful tale of improbable friendships, whirlwind romances, and unexpected joy.
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March 15, 2024
In late nineteenth-century Paris, young Aubry Tourvel and her two sisters visit a wishing well. Aubry's two sisters make their wishes, dropping a prized possession into the well, but when it's Aubry's turn, she balks, keeping her beloved puzzle ball to herself. Soon after, she develops a strange illness with uncontrollable bleeding that only ceases when she moves to a new place. The illness is a curse--Aubry must wander the world, unable to stay in one place for more than a few days before the bleeding returns. Thus begins the journey of a lifetime, a trek around the world full of unique experiences, stunning vistas, and occasional human connection. Aubry's odyssey is not merely physical, it's also her deeply personal quest to understand the nature of her illness and her place within the vast world. The story is nonlinear, and the chapters are brief and impressionistic, with some featuring Aubry recounting the stories of her life to the people she meets; others share Aubry's journey as she experiences it. The result is a one-of-a-kind love letter to nature, humanity, and the stories we all carry within ourselves. Westerbeke's engrossing, assured debut will enchant fans of Erin Morgenstern and Alix Harrow.
COPYRIGHT(2024) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.