Mona’s Eyes - Thomas Schlesser

Ten-year-old Mona is about to lose her sight forever. Her beloved grandfather has only fifty-two Wednesdays to visit fifty-two works of art and commit to memory “all that is beautiful in the world” before this happens. 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. For every Wednesday during a year, the pair will 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.