Decryption | A novel like a visit to the museum

Sold in more than 25 countries before even being published in French, Thomas Schlesser’s first novel, Mona’s eyes, is a magnificent introduction to art through the exceptional relationship between a grandfather and his granddaughter. A true literary tale, we could add when closing the book, which makes us rediscover 52 works of art in a new light.

A literary phenomenon

Art historian, Frenchman Thomas Schlesser has written numerous essays. But until now he was a complete unknown in the literary world, a bit like Giuliano da Empoli when he published The Kremlin Mage. Yet, Mona’s eyes was not even yet printed in French that its publisher had already sold the translation rights from the United States to China, via Germany, Italy, Turkey and Japan, among many others. It shows that art perhaps speaks a universal language… What is certainly not unrelated to this international craze for books is the fact that it takes us to visit three of the most famous Parisian museums in the world – the Louvre, Orsay and Beaubourg – while leading us to reflect on works of art that everyone knows (signed Vinci, Goya, Manet, Monet, Turner, Van Gogh, Klimt, Cézanne…) and to discover some along the way some a little less famous. The 52 works are also reproduced inside the cover of the book which unfolds like a small poster.

A story of transmission

“Everything became dark. » The novel begins with this disastrous sentence which suggests the worst. Without warning, Mona loses her sight. Momentarily, at least, since she found her almost an hour later. His parents immediately took him to the doctor who made him undergo a whole battery of tests. He also recommends that she consult a psychiatrist. It is his grandfather Henry who will be entrusted with the task of taking him to his weekly appointments. But this one, passionate about art, has a completely different idea in mind. “If, unfortunately, Mona one day became forever blind, she would at least have a sort of reservoir, deep in her brain, from which to draw visual splendors,” he said to himself. So, he instead suggests that she go with him every Wednesday to one of the major museums in Paris, without her parents knowing, and discover one work at a time. First by observing him in silence, then by discussing his impressions with his grandfather, who in return tells him everything he knows about each of them, about the artist’s intentions as well as on the context in which they were created. A chapter for each of the 52 works, therefore, which the author takes care to describe to us each time, as the daily life of this little girl who fears one day becoming blind unfolds in the background.

A personal cause

In the numerous interviews he has given since the publication of his novel, Thomas Schlesser has said that Mona’s eyes was born from a personal tragedy: the “non-advent” of a child. So he invented a sort of fictional daughter for himself. He worked for a whole decade writing this novel whose heroine is a bright, passionate, sensitive 10-year-old child, and above all very attached to her grandfather Henry (the novel is also dedicated to “ all the grandparents in the world). The author also insisted that his novel be published simultaneously in braille and in large print because, in his opinion, words have the power to make works of art “seen”.

A life lesson

Thomas Schlesser said the biggest challenge behind his novel was choosing the 52 works of art that would allow Henry’s character to learn from it. From each of them, he manages to extract a life lesson which he passes on to Mona. ” Smile for life. ” ” Know thyself. » “Trust the imagination. » “Cherish melancholy. » The author thus insists on the importance of looking for the message hidden behind a work of art rather than contemplating it passively. There is something endearing, too, in this special bond that unites Henry and Mona, whose greatest lesson will undoubtedly be to understand what growing up means. If Mona’s eyes makes you smile, moves and transports you, you finish the book with the irresistible desire to go to the museum. By imagining that we will perhaps come across, at the bend of an alley, an old man holding the hand of his granddaughter.

Mona’s eyes

Thomas Schlesser

Albin Michel

484 pages