Very short story with a very relevant message, but above all very beautifully illustrated with an independent animated story. It forces you to look your own lost soul in the eye.

Libro sul silenzio e l'attesa.

... gli sembrava di
muoversi sul liscio foglio di un quader-
no di matematica, ...

"Ma com'è possibile? Ho perduto an-
ch'io la mia anima?" - chiese.
La dottoressa saggia rispose:
"Succede perché la velocità con cui
si muovono le anime è molto inferiore
a quella dei corpi. ..."

( )

I don't even know how to rate this. It's certainly one of the strangest things I've ever seen. Is this a children's book? An art book? A modern fable? A cautionary tale?

A man is told that his feelings of loneliness and alienation are caused by his having moved so fast that he has left his soul behind. So he moves to a cottage and waits for his soul to find him.

The book is mostly art plates, with two overleafs, setting up the alienation theme and then alternating between the journey of the man's soul (represented as a child) and the man himself. The art is pencil, the palette is generally monotone and drab until the end, when it bursts forth in color and life as man and soul are reunited. Subjects range from landscape to still life to people.to surreal scenes featuring real or toy animals.

This book received the 2018 Nobel Prize for literature.

It is so easy to lose touch of what means so much to us. Grabbing the ticket to a fast moving vehicle is not the way to live. This lovely book reminds us to slow down, and if we don't our soul (the essence of who we are) will be lost. This is the story of a man who worked hard and thus the fast lane was his mode of living.

It wasn't until much later that he realized all the hustle and bustle really didn't get him very far. Every thing this man did was fast which led to depression and a sense of disconnect. Awaking feeling he could not breathe he lost track of where he was as all the cities look the same. The story tells us that not only did he lose perspective of where he was, but he lost his identifyer -- his name was gone as well.

A wise doctor told the man that in the hustle and bustle, losing our soul equates to losing our heart. His soul could not catch up with him. Souls move slower than our bodies is what the good doctor told him, the result is overwhelming confusion.

The man, whose name is John, decided to take a break and he found a cottage deep in the woods, at the edge of the city and he sat still and he waited. When waiting in silence, John heard a knock on the door. It was his lost soul.

At this point in the story, the incredible illustrations turn from black and white to color...lush wonderful color that he no longer wanted to leave behind.

Five Stars ( )

Seven Stories press has an office in Oakland! ( )