Thomas Schlesser wears many hats as an art historian, college professor, foundation director and author of several well-regarded nonfiction books. His second novel is the international bestseller "Mona’s Eyes," first published in Europe in 2024. It was translated from the original French for this English language edition by Hildegarde Serle who was twice nominated for the Dublin Literary Award. To date, it has been published in 38 languages and Braille and recently named Barnes and Noble Book of the Year.

There have been many fine books published in the recent past but few are as truly exceptional as "Mona’s Eyes." It dazzles as a masterful work combining literary fiction and great storytelling while demonstrating a pathway to the study of art and art history which can serve to stimulate intellectual curiosity and critical thinking.

Ten year-old Mona and her caring grandfather Henry are at the heart of this story set in present-day France. While her mother was working in their apartment kitchen and her father reading in another room, Mona was concentrating on her homework when her world went completely dark. A frantic phone call to the family doctor brought scant comfort. He suggested it could be a TIA or mini-stroke that should abate in a few minutes but encouraged them to rush their child to a hospital recommending a pediatrician colleague who was also a hypnotherapist. The drive was tense with her father seeking for something or someone to blame and doubting his wife’s explanation as there was no apparent cause and all the while Mona sobbed. The blindness incident lasted 63 minutes and when they reached the hospital cleared up as mysteriously as it had begun.

The little family resided in Montreuil, a working class suburb east of Paris where they were struggling financially. Camille, the mother, was almost 40, petite and slender, worked mornings part-time at a temp agency and afternoons volunteered for various causes. She adored her only child and husband despite his lack of stable income. This was the second marriage for 57-year old Paul who loved his family but eschewed the salaried jobs that would have provided greater economic stability. He bought and sold vintage goods in a small, nondescript rented shop specializing in 1950’s Americana including jukeboxes and pinball machines which he restored. There were assorted film posters, paper ephemera, old telephones and various miscellaneous items that might also be found at car boot sales and second-hand stores. Although he would occasionally sell a big ticket item to one of his regular customers, he barely scraped by for months on end. To compensate, he downed a bottle of red wine daily while working on an innovative telecommunications idea.

Mona was subjected to a battery of tests including an MRI which suggested there was a 50% possibility she would become permanently blind within a year. She is a highly perceptive, intelligent and pretty child with bright blue eyes and blond hair who excels at her studies, has two best school friends and is a sensitive, caring girl so attuned to some classmates that she defended them from bullies. Though young, Mona was aware of her parent’s disagreements over finances and concerned about her father’s growing number of empty wine bottles. The doctor recommended weekly therapy sessions as part of her treatment.

Maternal grandfather Henry is a well-educated intellectual who resides in Paris and has not yet come to terms with the death of his wife seven years earlier. He is tall, thin, quite handsome and distinguished looking with a full head of gray hair. He cares deeply for his only grandchild who resembles her grandmother in many ways; she is kind, sweet-tempered, intelligent and inquisitive. Henry is deeply troubled that if Mona loses her sight permanently, her last retained visual memories will be bleak and devoid of wonder. Her parent’s modest apartment and her father’s shabby little store filled with what Henry regards as plastic junk should not be the kind of images retained by her mind’s eye. Her grandfather is determined to purposely fill "Mona’s Eyes" with beauty for all time. To that end, he comes to an agreement with Mona that they will conspire to maintain a gentle lie together. He volunteers to take Mona to a therapist weekly on Wednesday afternoons after school and during the holidays for a full year ostensibly to ease his daughter’s responsibilities. Instead of psychotherapy sessions, Henry involves his grandchild in his world. “He would administer a therapy of a totally different kind, a therapy capable of compensating for the ugliness inundating her childhood.”

Henry and Mona have fifty-two weekly sessions together for an inspired, life-affirming and intensive immersion in art history. They study five centuries of art that is housed in three of the finest museums in Paris: the Louvre, Musée d’Orsay and Centre Georges Pompidou, France’s art and cultural complex known familiarly as Beaubourg. Unlike most city residents and tourists aiming to cover as much as possible within a short time, they will not zip through the buildings’ long corridors and many rooms inhaling art at a gallop. Faithfully, Henry picks Mona up after school and takes her to see just one masterpiece of art per visit that this remarkable man has carefully preselected. He has instructed her they will quietly observe this single work for several minutes or more before discussing it.

It is a little intimidating at first as Mona is not certain how to examine the form, shapes, colors and subject matter; what to observe and think about while looking deeply into a work of art. The first selection is a fresco painted by Sandro Botticelli in 1485. Mona’s lessons are captioned in each chapter heading. This one is“learn to receive”. Six minutes is all she can initially tolerate in this unfamiliar game. Cheekily, her first observation is about the visible age and scarring of the work. Her remarkably adept grandfather talks about the materials used by each artist, the uniqueness of the medium, the history of the time, biographical details and the subject matter portrayed.

Moving through classic Italian Renaissance artists to Old Dutch Masters, French classicists, and European giants including Da Vinci, Titian, Vermeer, Goya, Canaletto onto to the 19 th century and the modern era including Picasso, Jackson Pollock, Jean-Michel Basquiat and others, the weeks pass and the time Mona stands intently absorbing details and nuances increases dramatically. Grandfather Henry answers all of her questions and does not hesitate to include controversial arts and challenging works that might be above the typical 11 year-old head but Mona has proven to be a worthy, apt pupil with a sponge-like memory and a growing understanding which is reflected by an art historian’s full vocabulary. They do interact with a handful of museum regulars; a scholarly curator thrilled to tears to witness the attentive child and grandfather and a young engaged couple who are also passionate about art.

It is an enchanting, moving, emotional journey together as they explore the powerful impact and importance of art. As their relationship deepens, conversations begin to encompass the mundane; school, friendships and difficulties within the family.

"Mona’s Eyes" is beautifully crafted by gifted wordsmith and erudite art historian Thomas Schlesser. The book itself is glorious. Slip off the book jacket for a magical revelation of the 52 works of art that accompany Mona and her grandfather on their journey of discovery. Within each of the chapters there are passages of varying lengths set in italics. The author has explained, “These are what the Ancient Greeks call ekphrasis.” This is defined as a rhetorical device for vivid descriptions of an object or work of art.

Thomas Schlesser continued to explain the precision of these seeks to make the object exist as “almost hallucinatory” in the reader’s mind. For him, it was the most difficult part of writing in the book but his success ensured that "Mona’s Eyes" could be read and fully grasped in Braille. There is an exuberance, élan and joie de vivre throughout this marvelous book as well as a bottomless well of appreciation for art and its history. Intellectually rich, erudite and at the same time accessible with its terrific story, it is a book to read, gift and cherish.