Mona's Eyes

A Novel

By: Thomas Schlesser, Hildegarde Serle

Narrated by: Holly Lucas

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

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 listener’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 listenability 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.

“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

©2025 Thomas Schlesser (P)2025 Europa Editions

A dense story from beginning to end

This is a multi-layered story that keeps surprising and touches on a myriad of human experiences from childhood to death. The interactions of a small but eclectic French family are spread out across a year of visiting art museums. Learning to see art through critical thinking is only a small part of what the reader takes away from this novel. It deserves the reader’s full attention.

Descriptions of artwork

Having been at the art museums in Paris it gave me a different Outlook on viewing artwork.

Oof

This book is a hard to move through. There’s not a whole lot story wise and it’s mostly like reading an art history lecture which was not really what was advertised

the art of memories

Great book, great narrative. if you like art and history you will enjoy this book.

Learning about the artists!

A bit too much like an art history course at times - but I really learned a lot!