No Two Persons

December 1, 2022

Though gifted, Alice can't find her voice as a writer until tragedy shatters her life, compelling her to write a stunning debut novel. Among readers who find it life-changing are an unhoused teenager, a grieving widower, a love-hungry bookseller, a risk-taking athlete, and an angry artist frothing to take on the world. From the author of the best-selling novel The Scent Keeper; with a 150,000-copy first printing.

Copyright 2022 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 15, 2023
In this uniquely structured novel, Bauermeister explores the impact one book can have on numerous readers. Alice Wein has always wanted to be a writer but struggles to find the story she's meant to tell until the loss of her brother while she's in college. That tragedy prompts her to leave school and begin writing a novel, called Theo, about an abused boy who finds solace in swimming and attempts to escape his father's domineering by faking his death only for his father to die. Theo becomes the backbone of Bauermeister's novel; structured as loosely intertwined short stories, the book charts the writing, publishing, and reading of Theo from the perspectives of 10 people, including Alice, her publisher, a bookseller who forms a relationship with Alice, and readers the book touched in varying ways. Each reader connects with something different in Theo's story, which Bauermeister intends as a testament to the power of literature. While the book-within-a-book structure is interesting, there's little depth for readers to sink their teeth into. The chapters move quickly, and key aspects of the overarching plot are missing. For example, Kit, the bookseller who becomes Alice's partner, is introduced in a chapter charting the dissolution of his engagement to someone else. He only reappears in the epilogue, when his relationship with Alice is alluded to as he convinces her to attend an event. Alice's own path to being a professional writer is similarly underdeveloped; a professor recognizes her talent within a few sessions of one of her first college classes and becomes a mentor, though his role is confined to a few encouraging but trite suggestions that she write the story she's "meant to write." She does and is published quickly despite a few early rejections that are discussed and moved past within half a page. An interesting structure can't redeem this underdeveloped and simplistic take on the ways readers engage with novels.

COPYRIGHT(2023) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

March 13, 2023
Bauermeister’s moving linked collection (after The Scent Keeper) revolves around a novel by a reclusive author. After Alice Wein’s older brother, Peter, a once-promising swimmer, dies from an overdose, she writes a novel titled Theo with an eponymous main character inspired by her brother. Over the next 10 years, Theo is plucked from an agent’s slush pile by a new mother and is later recorded as an audiobook by an actor whose career was hindered by a disease that causes skin discoloration. The stories, all of which feature a life derailed by circumstance, become more engaging as they focus on Theo’s readers. The overarching narrative takes a while to get going—early stories such as “The Writer” are vague—but the author hits her stride with “The Teenager,” in which a secretly homeless scholarship kid finds a lifeline through sympathetic adults. Another standout is “The Caretaker,” in which a widower gets to experience his beloved wife’s presence one more time through her marginalia. “The Agent,” a satisfying closer, checks in on Alice’s agent at the end of her own long career. There’s plenty of charm to this thoughtful take on a book’s impact on its readers.

April 15, 2023
Alice always found a refuge in stories. First reading them, disappearing into their pages, and then writing them herself. It surprised her that characters would grab hold and not let her go, making it less like writing and more like being channeled. After Alice's debut novel becomes a best-seller, each subsequent chapter explores the life of one of its readers, from an intimidating publishing doyenne to a highschooler keeping a secret. The book seems to attach itself firmly to everyone who encounters it. Bauermeister (The Scent Keeper, 2019) pens a love letter to novels, imagining the far reach and deep hold of the stories we carry with us. Fans of Karen Dukess' The Last Book Party (2019), and Tatiana de Rosnay's The Other Story (2014) will appreciate Bauermeister's deep respect for the written word and the power a well-told story can have on anyone. Bauermeister's latest inspiring and introspective novel offers a peek inside the world of publishing, but more importantly, it explores what happens after a long-held dream is achieved.

COPYRIGHT(2023) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.