“The greatest prose writer that the South produced … She has examined the heart of man with an understanding that no other writer can hope to surpass.”

NO MAJOR SPOILERS

It seems to me that books about lonely people find their way to my hands lately.

This book is about John Singer, a deaf-mute young man, whose only friend, at the beginning of the story, is another deaf-mute, a greek man, Spiros Antonapoulos. But when Spiros is locked down in an asylum, Singer’s life is permanently changed.

He is now all alone and, because of his kind nature, he becomes the confidant of four people: the owner of the place where he eats every day, a little girl who wants to grow up, a black doctor, misunderstood by his own family, an angry socialist. All of them outsiders, all of them lonely in their own way.

I haven’t heard of this novel until last August, when I was browsing one of my favourite bookstores, to stock up on potential books I wanted to give as presents to my family(and probably to myself). This one seemed appropiate for my mother. She has read it since and loved it. 5 months later, I read it too.

Somehow it reminded me of “To Kill A Mockingbird”. Probably because the town is not so different from the one in TKAM and it also deals with racism. Fortunately, it was just as good.

 

Reviewed by:

Mary Katerine

Added 28th March 2018