One book. Nine readers. Ten changed lives. New York Times bestselling author Erica Bauermeister’s No Two Persons is “a gloriously original celebration of fiction, and the ways it deepens our lives.”

That was the beauty of books, wasn’t it? They took you places you didn’t know you needed to go…

Alice has always wanted to be a writer. Her talent is innate, but her stories remain safe and detached, until a devastating event breaks her heart open, and she creates a stunning debut novel. Her words, in turn, find their way to readers, from a teenager hiding her homelessness, to a free diver pushing himself beyond endurance, an artist furious at the world around her, a bookseller in search of love, a widower rent by grief. Each one is drawn into Alice’s novel; each one discovers something different that alters their perspective, and presents new pathways forward for their lives.

Together, their stories reveal how books can affect us in the most beautiful and unexpected of ways—and how we are all more closely connected to one another than we might think.

No Two Persons (Amazon US) (Amazon UK) (Audible)

This book is really interesting because it’s a novel, but also a series of short stories where sometimes the characters from one story interact with people from another story. Their common thread is a book written by a young woman from a dysfunctional family who doesn’t have anything but her gift of writing. She writes a book about a boy named Theo, and the book is rejected many times until her college professor gives her the name of one last publisher. And that’s all it took. The book gets published and is a big hit.

With that one story, Theo, the story pivots to nine different people who become exposed to the book. I can’t say read the book because a few of the people didn’t even read it. They are the ASSISTANT, the ACTOR, the ARTIST, the DIVER, the TEENAGER, the BOOKSELLER, the CARETAKER, the COORDINATOR, and the AGENT. Each chapter is a short story of the person and their interaction with the book, and what the book meant to them. This book is a love story to writers and the book lovers who embrace the books that are written.

I do have to say that while this book celebrates books, many of the stories told are sad. Some of the people are wholly unlikeable, some do pretty stupid things. But that’s the beauty of Erica Bauermeister’s work: it evokes strong emotions, much like the book at the center of the novel. Some of the stories end abruptly, so the reader has to use their imagination to figure out the conclusions to the stories.

I recommend this book, but prepare to have something frothy and fun to read to follow this book because it’s heavy on emotions.

Many thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for providing me an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions expressed are my own.

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