Too fragmented - trying to be clever but just doesn't achieve it and left me feeling emotionally bare.

Incredibly well written, with an intriguing premise. I enjoyed this a lot but was a little confused in places.

Apologies for posting this late, I thought I'd already responded to the book.

Sorry but this wasn't for me at all - I did not manage to finish this book. I found the structure of the timeline difficult to take in, and I didn't like the main character at all.

Thanks though to NetGalley and the publishers for an ARC. All opinions my own.

For those that like fiction in a linear form, with a beginning, a middle and and end this is the book you have been waiting for.
It is nothing like a conventional novel and will quickly disorientate you looking for form and function. It is like the unraveling of a self-centred life, whose personal beauty and intelligence inhibit his ability to have normal social interaction.
Saul Alder is a historian and scholar. He has strange relationship with his girlfriend an art student who has set aside her oils to take up photography. Saul is her ‘muse’ and she delights in taking photos of him; including one cross the zebra crossing on Abbey Road.
The chronology seems straight forward as Saul heads off East Germany to lecture and do further research. His relationship with his translator, Walter, and his extended family becomes complicated. Once his assignment and stay in the GDR comes to its end he returns home. Now the story fragments into an almost dreamlike quality. Following a serious accident on a zebra crossing Saul drifts in and out of consciousness as he fights off sepsis.
Now different strands of his life interact and overlay his reality as he becomes confused and thinks he is back in a divided Germany.
He appears to have regrets but lacks the ability to make amends. He is deeply unhappy but whether he wants the attention or not is surrounded by those that still love and care for him.
A book full of clever twists and a collage of emotions and muddled events. We never grow to like Saul but through his life we see a reflection of recent European history. The struggle to break free from authoritarianism and the reminders of unfulfilled relationships within a life.
Now for all Saul’s faults and failings it is again remarkable how he still enables other significant others from his life to show concern and care for him.
I enjoyed a book that was different, explored life as through a kaleidoscope and made me reflect.
As with most fiction it will not please everyone but I am grateful I found time to read this novel and become familiar with the author.

This was a powerful, beautifully written book set alternately in Germany and London, in 1988 and 2016. I wasn't sure about it at first, mainly because I wasn't very keen on the main characters, but it got better as it went on. The plot was clever but also quite strange in style. An unusual but interesting read.

What can I say about The Man Who Saw Everything? Firstly, I enjoyed reading it. It certainly wasn’t predictable, and I had no idea how the book was going to go in either half. As I read on to the second half, it began to become a little clearer as to why that was, exactly. There is a reason why the main character, Saul Adler, slips around in time. And I can’t tell you why, because to do so will give away the whole book!

This is a book where time, sexuality and personality are all malleable and difficult to pin down - all at the same time. You don’t know what’s real, and what’s in the imagination. Past and present are portrayed not just in the ages of the main character, but also in the former East and West Germany and the old and new (post-Brexit) Europe.

I don’t think I’ll ever be able to properly explain this - even if I tried. I do know, however, that I really liked it.

It's great to be in a position to recommend much more diverse books to our young people at school. Building the senior school library as a place where students actually come and find books that they want to read as opposed to books that teachers think they ought to read is an important responsibility and one we take really seriously.
Books like this are such a positive move as they will appeal to a broader set of readers than we are usually attracting. Dealing with modern issues in a clear and captivating way with a strong narrative voice and characters that the students can relate to is critical as we move forwards. This book is both an intelligent and compelling read that will hold even the most reluctant reader's attention and keep them turning the pages long into the night. It keeps the reader on their toes and ensures that you give it your full attention too. I found myself thinking about its characters and events even when I wasn't reading it and looking forward to snatching kore time with it and I hope that my students feel the same. An accessible, gripping and engrossing read that I can't recommend highly enough. Will absolutely be buying a copy for the library and heartily recommending it to both staff and students.

Whilst this book has received praise from reviewers I found it to be depressing. A tale initially of a young historian, Saul, who goes over to East Germany before the wall is demolished. So faces all the communist protocols of the times, though not a communist himself, his father did have such beliefs and Saul is trying to write a paper on this part of history. He has a fling with both his East German, male translator and the translator's sister. The book then flips to Saul being in bed in hospital under intensive care and receiving morphine. With the dreamland and wakefulness times being mixed and muddled, Saul remembers parts of his life and what a mess he made of it. It's cleverly written exploring the subconscious memory at times.
However, I wouldn't recommend this book to friends, as I said I found it depressing.

Unfortunately, I have not been able to read and review this book.

After losing and replacing my broken Kindle and getting a new phone I was unable to download the title again for review as it was no longer available on Netgalley.

I’m really sorry about this and hope that it won’t affect you allowing me to read and review your titles in the future.

Thank you so much for giving me this opportunity.
Natalie.

Surreal, dazzling and puzzling. This novel is worthy of its nominations and more. Incredible plot and characters

Thankyou to netgalley, the publishers and author for the copy of this novel. Their generosity has no influence on the rating i gave this novel.

I have to say i didn't particularly enjoy this book of Deborah Levy's. Maybe it's because i didn't have any empathy with Saul, the main character who is hit by a car, disappears off to the GDR and lots more things happen, but I found it hard to understand the time slippages and what was happening when. Had he been in a coma for the whole thing? i'll never know, or really care.

The Man Who Saw Everything by Deborah Levy received a well-deserved Booker Prize nomination last year. Set in the 1980s, it tells the story of Saul Bellow, a university lecturer who has recently broken up with his girlfriend Jennifer shortly before he embarks on a research trip to East Berlin. As with Levy's other novels, the plot is rather elusive with so much uncertainty surrounding the shifting setting - everything set up in the first part is then unravelled in the second half which got rather confusing. However, the characterisation was engaging enough to hold my interest and I enjoyed spotting the numerous Beatles motifs which recur throughout.

This slim volume spans a large expanse of time exploring and sees the disintegration of time as man's mind deteriorates. It's a beautiful jigsaw of a novel, delving into human sexuality and recent history. I recommend thoroughly.

Deborah Levy knows how to tell a story and she also knows how to serve up big ideas. Chuck in a great sub plot and an unreliable narrator and voila, you have ‘The Man Who Saw Everything’. Skilful, daring and different.

I really like Hot Milk so was keen to read more of Levy's work. I wasn't disappointed - this is a stylish, well-crafted book with a great plot.

I loved the intertwining of key points in time matched with very contemporary backdrop of Brexit. It was a really clever book and highly enjoyable read.

Deborah Levy has had a few of her books short and long listed for The Man Booker Prize including her latest novel The Man Who Knew Everything, on this years long list. Set in 1988 and 2016 Saul Adler finds himself twice on Abbey Road, crossing the famous zebra crossing, and being knocked over. In 1988 he visits the German Democratic Republic (GDR), as part as history thesis and enters the world of Walter and his sister Luna who leave a huge impression on his life. Just before the fall of the Berlin Wall, Saul finds himself in an environment where all you do is watched and you can’t trust anyone. 2016 he looks back at his life, his loves and losses in a slightly surreal dream like scene, fragmented. and with Saul not the most reliable of narrators. As expected this is a beautifully written book, that raises many thought provoking questions.

This is a very character driven read with Saul as the sole narrator. He is portrayed as a very beautiful man with his shoulder length dark hair, beautiful eyes and high cheekbones. His beauty is important to him, and he is defined by it to a certain extent, his girlfriend Jennifer Moreau uses him as muse for her art, and his beauty draws both Walter and Luna to him. He does come across as slightly shallow and self centred, not always realising the feelings of others or the consequences of his actions. But through him we see how memories can be fragmented, and how his memories may not always be the truth and can be open to interpretation.

Deborah Levy always writes such beautiful and descriptive prose. This is a very sensual read, as love and sexuality are an important part of Saul’s story, there are some wonderful sentences about touch and feel that really stand out. At only two hundred pages this is a short read but within those two hundred pages there is a of thought provoking content, as the subjects of memory, sexuality, love, history and beauty come to the fore.

The Man Who Saw Everything has been hard to review as I don’t want to give anything away. What I can tell you is that I found this a mesmerising and intelligent read, with expressive prose and a fascinating central character. I absolutely loved this book, and highly recommend adding it to your shelves or book pile.

My interest in reading this stemmed from my studies of communism and the Cold War: I was curious to read a story set in context of these events, along with the fact this was in the running for the 2019 Man Booker Prize.

This book reads like a mental hypnotic spiral - imagine Alice when she’s falling down the rabbit hole to Wonderland - because of how befuddling and scattered Saul’s thoughts and feelings are. I personally found it challenging to understand what meaning was behind Saul and other characters words and actions upon reading them, so I wouldn’t describe this as an easy book to read. However, once it all lingers in the mind, it comes together quite rewardingly, for a truly memorable ending.

Saul was a fascinating protagonist and I thoroughly enjoyed reading his story. He’s thoughtless yet in other ways entirely visionary, or at least represents such sentiment. Moreover, Saul’s expertise on the GDR was both interesting and frightening in terms of the plot. His character couldn’t escape the lens of his knowledge of the topic: he kept comparing things he witnessed or his own feelings to things that happened to Stalin or things happening in divided Germany.

I cannot stress enough how much I adored Levy’s commentary on masculinity and gender issues. Sal’s character is described as appearing quite feminine – as one character points out that with long hair, Saul could pass as a woman. As well as this, Saul’s character wears his mother’s pearl necklace, which goes without saying would regrettably be considered as odd and unacceptable in places even today. But my god, Levy got it right in one sentence, which I must quote for its brilliance: “I had never given much thought to a pearl belonging to a gender.”

The Man Who Saw Everything is a refreshing insight into the realities a lot of people had to face during The Cold War, and even more concerning, what a lot of people still face in the world today. One of these realities is censorship, which Levy contrasted well via Jennifer and how she told Saul certain words were forbidden, and then also what Saul observed in East Berlin.

My only quibbles were its readability and enjoyment. Firstly, this isn’t a book everyone can pick up and easily read. It’s development and structure is quite complex to grasp, in comparison to other books. And secondly, after the first half of the story - when Saul is older - I felt the feeling of the story became quite lifeless and was nowhere near as enjoyable as the first half.

The Man Who Saw Everything is a highly political assessment of our world’s history and our societies across the decades, which is in its entirety, both poignant and dare I say haunting. This is without a shadow of doubt a profound book beneath a modest surface that will not be everybody’s cup of tea, but for those who love intricate and equivocal woven stories, then The Man Who Saw Everything is not to be missed.


Thank you kindly to the publishers and Netgalley for providing me with an e-copy, in exchange for this honest review.

I adore Deborah Levy and will read anything she writes.

This novel was clever and deeply unsettling, as though the ground is shifting beneath the reader's feet on every sentence. Saul is lightly struck by a car on the Abbey Road crossing in 1988, and the German drivers asks if he is all right; Saul is later struck by a car on the Abbey Road crossing in 2016, and the driver Wolfgang blames him entirely.

This is a novel of echoes and anachronisms, the shattering of memory, and the perception of reality. Phew! Not that ambitious then, ho ho... Deborah Levy, in her unflinchingly brilliant style, totally pulls it off.

Thank you to Netgalley and Penguin Books for this e-copy in return for my honest review. Deservedly longlisted for the 2019 Booker Prize, a clever and stunning read.