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A Short Walk Through a Wide World cover art

A Short Walk Through a Wide World

By: Douglas Westerbeke
Narrated by: Saskia Maarleveld
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Summary

Brought to you by Penguin.

If you could never stay, where would you go? – a dazzlingly epic debut novel that charts the adventurous life of one woman as she journeys the globe to outrun a mysterious curse

Paris, 1885: Aubry Tourvel, a spoiled and stubborn nine-year-old girl, comes across a wooden puzzle ball on her walk home from school. She tosses it over the fence, only to find it in her satchel that evening. Days later, at the family dinner table, she begins to succumb to a mysterious illness.

When a visit to a doctor only makes her worse, she flees to the outskirts of the city, where she realises that it is this very act of movement that keeps her alive. And so begins her incredible lifelong journey on the run from her condition.

From the scorched dunes of the Calanshio Sand Sea to the snow-packed peaks of the Himalayas; from a bottomless well in a Parisian courtyard, to the shelves of an infinite underground library, we follow Aubry as she learns what it takes to survive and, ultimately, to truly live. But the longer she wanders, the clearer it becomes that the world she travels through may not be quite the same as everyone else’s…
©2024 Douglas Westerbeke (P)2024 Penguin Audio
Action & Adventure Magical Realism Historical Fiction
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Critic reviews

A gorgeous ode to wanderlust... Douglas Westerbeke's dazzling debut takes readers on a thought-provoking journey through cultures and timelines...and also, through a mysterious cave-bound library. I savored every page of this book! (SHELBY VAN PELT, bestselling author of Remarkably Bright Creatures)
That rare book that immediately becomes a dear friend… beautiful… This is a novel that asks what it is to love the world, and what it is for the world to love us. A grand adventure that begs to be revisited again and again (ERIKA SWYLER, author of The Book of Speculation and Light From Other Stars)

What listeners say about A Short Walk Through a Wide World

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Profile Image for Jessica

Loved this story!

Such a magical narration, it’s a journey (or several) around the world, with so good descriptions that it’s almost like it was me who was the protagonist of this story.

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Profile Image for John Chapman

Short walk through a wide world

Although the concept as a whole was very good it was let down by a very underwhelming finish. Mostly well written and worth the read though.

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