"Seductive . . . Saunders traffics [the characters’] elaborately interlacing trajectories with impressive dexterity." - The New York Times Book Review
"Richly detailed and highly observant . . . Fans of David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas and Téa Obreht's The Tiger's Wife will love Saunders' debut, which takes up the mantle of myth, history, and storytelling with beautiful, sure-footed prose." - Kirkus Reviews
"Intricately plotted, complexly affecting." - Booklist
"Hypnotically peculiar, exquisitely plotted, and teeming with suspense, Saunders brilliant debut pulls at plot threads as delicate as gossamer silk to get at the truth and the destiny of her flawed, appealing, maddening characters." - starred review, Library Journal
"Remarkable . . . intriguing . . . extraordinary . . . The interwoven stories of Magdalena, Neil, and their families raise thought-provoking questions of destiny and freewill. Well done, Ms. Saunders!" - Shelf Awareness
"A graceful and elegant novel about love and mystery, loss and melancholy, sorrow and hope. From words written on the skin to the sight of unbearable things, Saunders explores with great nuance the limits of human vision." - Viet Thanh Nguyen, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of THE SYMPATHIZER
"Extraordinary. Saunders' debut is grounded in such a solid world of character and place that its uncanny premise seems the most natural way to set right the missed connections of three wounded people." - Gail Godwin, three-time National Book Award finalist and author of FLORA
"A twisty gem of a book. Eloquently written, equal parts brutal and tender, Indelible is haunting in the very best way." - Erika Swyler, author of THE BOOK OF SPECULATION
"A tapestry of human fates so vivid and unusual it will leave you wondering madly what words may be written across your own skin." - Rebecca Dinerstein, author of THE SUNLIT NIGHT
"A history, a romance, a fantastic mystery—all of these descriptors could be applied to Indelible, and all of them are true. Transporting, unique, and entirely engrossing, it leaves a beautiful mark." - Kate Racculia, author of BELLWEATHER RHAPSODY
"Each scene in Indelible is a vivid postcard as ineffaceable as its title. Readers will stay up late at night turning pages, trying to riddle out the mystery of these characters' intertwined lives. Expertly plotted, beautifully written!" - Suzanne Rindell, author of THREE-MARTINI LUNCH
"Adelia Saunders has a vivid imagination, an excellent command of language, and the ability to empathize with the characters she has created. This debut novel will stay with the reader for quite some time." - Bookreporter.com
"Haunting . . . stunning and unique." - Largehearted Boy
"Enthralling . . . a layered and lyrical novel." - Chicago Review of Books
"[Indelible] has a certain page-turning quality . . . An absorbing tale of the complications of memory and the way chance encounters can affect the trajectory of one's life." - Daily Hampshire Gazette
"[A] complex, intriguing and compelling tale . . . that draws the readers into a world of mysterious happenings. When the story ends, the characters will still resonate in the mind. Indelible is a remarkable first novel." - The Durango Herald
★ 01/01/2017
Sixtysomething Richard Beart wants to solve the mystery of his dead mother's abandonment of him when he was an infant. He starts his search through French hospital records with only a memory fragment of a red pair of shoes worn by Inga Beart, an international literary sensation whose 1954 act of self-harm horrified the world. In tandem with his own quest, Richard sends his son, Neil, a student in England, on a delivery mission that takes him to Lithuania, France, and Paris. Neil is constantly sidetracked by his own half-recollection of a disturbing moment in his father's teaching career that cost Richard his job. Magdalena, whose mother is the designated recipient of Richard's gifts to be delivered by Neil, literally sees the histories and memories of everyone around her. Word fragments appear all over their bodies whenever she wears her glasses. The lives of Magdalena and the Bearts intersect, separate, and circle ever closer, triggering a hunt across several European countries in search of answers. VERDICT Hypnotically peculiar, exquisitely plotted, and teeming with suspense, Saunders's brilliant debut pulls at plot threads as delicate as gossamer silk to get at the truth and the destiny of her flawed, appealing, maddening characters.—Beth Andersen, formerly with Ann Arbor Dist. Lib., MI
2016-10-05
A Lithuanian immigrant who can see the fates of other people written on their skin pursues her mysterious connection to a young man and his father.For Magdalena, other people pose an unusual problem. Their skin holds history—intimate details of their past and present, but “Magdalena’s skin [has] nothing to say about anything.” After the loss of a dear friend, Magdalena begins to think of her strange gift as a curse. She decides to stop using her glasses—the better to avoid discovering the futures of others. When she’s thrown together with Neil, an American studying abroad, Magdalena discovers her own name written “just above his cheekbone.” As this quiet debut leads readers from the streets of London and Paris to the Spanish seaside, Saunders weaves the perspectives of Magdalena and Neil together with Richard, Neil’s father, on the hunt for lost details about his mother, who abandoned him at birth. Soon all three characters are connected by a web of coincidence and chance meetings, which grows in significance as the novel winds to its conclusion. Richly detailed and highly observant, Saunders’ debut takes its time revealing how the lives of a famous novelist, a disgraced English teacher, an aspiring historian, and a haunted young woman intersect. What at first seem like throwaway narrative embellishments—like Neil’s scholarly obsession with the record of a 13th-century Roman pilgrim—soon come into relief. Saunders transforms what could be a simple tale of fate and coincidence into a compelling meditation on the horrors of the Holocaust, the difficulties of forgiveness, and the complications of memory. Fans of David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas and Téa Obreht’s The Tiger’s Wife will love Saunders’ debut, which takes up the mantle of myth, history, and storytelling with beautiful, sure-footed prose.
