Mona's Eyes - Large Print by Thomas Schlesser (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

THE SENSATIONAL #1 INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER THAT HAS TAKEN THE WORLD BY STORM, IN A LARGE PRINT EDITION

New York Times Bestseller - Barnes & Noble 2025 Book of the Year - Boston Globe Best Book of the Year - National Indie Bestseller - Top Ten Indie Next Pick - Indigo Heather's Pick

"Vibrant debut ... Schlesser seamlessly interweaves the art lessons with Mona's story ... Readers of Jostein Gaarder's Sophie's World will love this." --Publishers Weekly

Ten-year-old Mona and her beloved grandfather have only fifty-two Wednesdays to visit fifty-two works of art and commit to memory "all that is beautiful in the world" before Mona loses her sight forever.

While the doctors can find no explanation for Mona's brief episode of blindness, they agree that the threat of permanent vision loss cannot be ruled out. The girl's grandfather, Henry, may not be able to stop his granddaughter from losing her sight, but he can fill the encroaching darkness with beauty.

Every Wednesday for a year, the pair abscond together and visit a single masterpiece in one of Paris's renowned museums. From Botticelli to Basquiat, Mona learns how each artist's work shaped the world around them. In turn, the young girl's world is changed forever by the power of their art. Under the kind and careful tutelage of her grandfather, Mona learns the true meaning of generosity, melancholy, love, loss, and revolution. Her perspective will never be the same -- nor will the reader's.

Mona's Eyes is a heartfelt, enlightening journey across five centuries of Western art history. With the emotional impact of The Elegance of the Hedgehog and the readability of The Little Paris Bookshop, Thomas Schlesser's sensational debut novel is at once a moving book about the beauty of life and a deeply touching story about the special bond between a girl and her grandfather.

Review Quotes

"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

"There is something quite addictive about Thomas Schlesser's Mona's Eyes. Once you start reading it, you cannot stop... Written in the vein of Jostein Gaarder's Sophie's World, Schlesser's novel offers a similarly compact, often exhilarating cruise through the last few centuries of Western art."--The Art Newspaper

"There have been many fine books published in the recent past but few are as truly exceptional as Mona's Eyes. It dazzles as a masterful work combining literary fiction and great storytelling while demonstrating a pathway to the study of art and art history which can serve to stimulate intellectual curiosity and critical thinking... There is an exuberance, élan and joie de vivre throughout this marvelous book as well as a bottomless well of appreciation for art and its history. Intellectually rich, erudite and at the same time accessible with its terrific story, it is a book to read, gift and cherish."--BookTrib

"No surprise that the novel's author is a professor of art history at the École Polytechnique in Paris; his characters channel his dazzling command of the greats."--Hyperallergic

"A French art historian's English-language fiction debut combines the story of a loving relationship between a grandfather and granddaughter with an enlightening discussion of art... Come for the novel, stay for the introductory art history course."--Kirkus Reviews

"[A] life-affirming narrative."--Booklist Online

"Every week for a year, 10-year-old Mona and her grandfather Dade visit a work of art at a Paris museum... Their rendezvous over Klimt, Kahlo, Cézanne and other greats deepen their relationship to one another and the world around them in a thoughtful tribute to the power of art as a guide to self-reflection (doubling as a delightful art history session, which the author teaches in Paris)."--Zed: The Zoomer Book Club

"Mona's Eyes is a feast for art lovers, art curious, Francophiles and those who appreciate a well-crafted, elevated, yet approachable narrative that will leave you both grounded and inspired at the same time by the end of the novel."--The Simply Luxurious Life

"It's an earthquake. A seismic shift in the world of publishing. A Sophie's World set in the art world. Thomas Schlesser. Remember the name."--Alice Develey, Le Figaro

"An ode to beauty and wisdom."--Le Parisien

"Mona's Eyes is not only an introductory novel about art; it is also a universal tale."--La Croix

"The phenomenal novel that makes you want to run to the museum... Better than Emily in Paris."--Télerama

"Fabulous!"--France Inter

"Thomas Schlesser is the world champion of dissemination. A brilliant book."--Télématin

"A tender and absolutely captivating book."--La grande librairie

"A wonderful and poignant story."--Courrier Picard

"Telling the story of a little girl who is introduced to beauty and life, Mona's Eyes as sparked an exceptional level of enthusiasm."--RTL

"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, NY