Ten-year-old Mona and her beloved grandfather have only fifty-two Wednesdays to visit fifty-two works of art and commit to memory “all that is beautiful in the world” before Mona loses her sight forever. 
 

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. Every Wednesday for a year, the pair abscond together and 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. 

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Barnes & Noble Book of the Year 2025

“This is a novel for everyone, a gentle, moving tale about family, beauty, and the fleeting moments that make lasting memories."—James Daunt

Thomas Schlesser is an art historian, professor at École Polytechnique, and Director of the Hartung-Bergman Foundation in Antibes. He’s the author of some fifteen books, and is particularly interested in the relations between art and politics in the 19th and 20th centuries. Hildegarde Serle graduated in French from Oxford University. After working as a newspaper subeditor in London for many years, she obtained the Chartered Institute of Linguists Diploma in Translation. For Europa Editions, she has translated Christelle Dabos’ Mirror Visitor series and the novels of Valérie Perrin.