In Paris, 1885: Aubry Tourvel, a very stubborn nine-year-old girl discovers a wooden puzzle ball on her way home from school. She tosses it over a fence, only to discover it in her backpack that evening. Days later, as the family is sitting down to dinner, Aubry begins to bleed to death. Her family rushes her to the doctor only to discover her instantly better. However, as soon as she returns home, the bleeding, convulsions and muscle rigidity begins all over again. Aubry realizes that she can no longer stay home, but must remain on the move. At first, her mother accompanies her on her journey as they travel from hotel to hotel, city to city, until the money begins to run out and she knows in her heart the best thing she can do for everyone is go it alone. So she begins her solitary journey around the world, on the run from her condition, which won’t allow her to stay anywhere for longer than a few days nor return to a place where she’s already been. Aubry's journey takes her to every continent, traversing everything from the dunes of the Calashino Sand Sea to the snowy peaks of the Himalayas. The longer Aubry walks, the more she wants to share her life with others. Just because Aubry is destined to wander this world for her remaining days, doesn't mean she has to do it alone.

This book was amazing. This was one of those stories that stays with you long after you turn the final page. I have always wanted to travel the world, but due to unforeseen circumstances, that is a dream that will never be realized. However, I got to live out a little of that dream vicariously through Aubry, and oh, what a marvelous time we had! We went places I had never even heard of, and saw things I could just picture in my mind as she described them. It was amazing and I never wanted the adventure to end. This book is perfect for anyone - people who love action/adventure stories, fantasy fiction lovers., even those who just love to sit down and curl up with a cup of coffee (or whatever the beverage of your choice is) and be told a really good story. I highly recommend this one!

A Short Walk Through a Wide World is truly a great story! This fabulous debut novel follows Aubrey Tourvel as she races around the world to stay ahead of her sickness. We, the lucky readers, get to follow along on her adventures that transport us from mountains to jungles with stops in a magical library. I did not want this one to end and I’m sure I will continue to revisit it frequently. Thank you to Avid Reader Press and NetGalley for the eARC.

Aubry Tourvel is a character you will not forget. She has been suffering since she was 9 years old. Finding a strange puzzle box, or a strange puzzle box finding her, has changed her life forever. After refusing to throw the box in a well, Aubry starts to get violently ill. The only thing the keeps her well is moving. Constantly moving. Not only can she not stay in any place for very long but she can never return to anywhere she has been without convulsing, bleeding, and writhing in pain. She is often saying to others, "I cannot go back."

"I cannot go back." Is there a more fitting analogy for life? We can never go back. Aubrey cannot form long bonds. Even her own family cannot travel with her. From the age of 12 on she relies on her own wits and the kindness of strangers. Everywhere she goes people help, people warn of the others around them, and people try to cure her. No one really believes her, though. It is just too much. Aubrey comes to be well known worldwide. But she remains lonely. No one can live this life with her forever, can they?

A Short Walk Through a Wide World is what it was advertised to be. There are so many things to think about as you are reading and when you finish that you may want to read it again.

I really enjoyed this book. It is described as Addie LaRue meets Life of Pi…that is pretty spot on. Through in some Midnight Library and that wraps it up.
This is the story of Aubrey Tourvel who becomes sick at the age of 9 and must leave home. She must travel to keep her sickness at bay. We follow her through many travels.
The story jumps back and forth in time and can be a little hard to follow at times. This did not change my enjoyment of the book. I kept reading to hear about her travels and all the people she met along the way.
There are a few loose ends that were never explained in the book-mostly about her illness.
The ending is very open ended. So if you are looking for a book that wraps up nicely, this may not be for you.
I really enjoyed this book.

I probably won't be the only one left scratching my head while and after reading this beguiling and baffling novel. Aubry, as a nine year old, picked up and kept a magic ball which seemingly condemned her to a life of endless motion to avoid a painful death. This cleverly starts with her telling her story to a couple on a boat and then moves back in time to the beginning of her journey. She hits all the continents, skipping over oceans and mountains via doors which periodically appear She has several relationships- all constrained by the need to keep moving. I found myself caught up in the story (the storytelling is very good) but felt there was something missing. Aubry is a dynamic character- a woman who hunts, fishes, kills, and so on but does she love? Or miss love? Thanks to the publisher for the ArC. It's an intriguing concept and a good read.

GENERAL INFO

A Short Walk Through a Wide World-a standalone

Publication date: 4-2-24, Read 3-30-24

Format: eBook, 399 pages

Source: Thanks to NetGalley and Avid Reader Press/Simon &Schuster for this ARC💙!  I voluntarily give my honest review and all opinions expressed are my own.

Genre: Adult/Women's Fic, Historical Fic, Sci-Fi/Fantasy

Tropes: adventure, found friends, magical realism

BOOK DESCRIPTION

Synopsis/Plot Summary: Aubry Tourvel is stuck with a mysterious illness. A curse that makes her keep moving to different places or die. She can never go back to places she's been. She's left to travel the world learning new languages and customs. She longs for a comfortable, stable home, but is carried across the world on the ultimate adventure of life.

Flashbacks: The story is told by Aubry and the people she meets along the way. Its told in different timelines, sometimes hard to know how old Aubry is unless she tells us.


AUTHOR OVERVIEW

Douglas Westerbeke, a debut author

PERSONAL OVERVIEW

Overall Rating: 4/5

Do You Recommend This Book: yes

Will You Re-read This Book: yes

Would You Read More Books by this Author: yes

COMMENTS/NOTES: This is an epic fantasy to places I've never heard of but people I would want to know. Aubry navigates her way into the culture of wherever she ends up. She depends on the kindness of strangers and her own resourcefulness to survive. Aubry gets proverbs of wisdom and a life of self discovery.

A young girl is cursed with an illness that forces her to continually move and leave everything behind or face certain death. Aubrey Touvel from the time she’s 9 years old can not stay in one place for more than a few days..Her travels are mostly by foot as she can never return on the same path. Notoriety follows her as she meets many, has adventures and takes lovers all the while she searches and hopes for a cure.
This beautifully written story is by a debut author (Douglas Westerbeke) who also is a librarian. Stands to reason books, libraries and the written word figure heavily here. The ending is not tied up in a bow and leaves much to contemplate as a life worth living. With shades of Addie LaRue and a dash of magical realism this is a book well worth reading. Thanks to Netgalley and Simon and Schuster

At nine years old, young Aubry Torval develops a condition that doesn’t allow her to stay in one place longer than a few days or visit a location twice. This sets in a motion a life of wonder and discovery, exotic locales and people, as Aubry wanders the world. This was beautifully written and the descriptions were vivid and lush. Unfortunately about two-thirds through, the story seemed to stall and become a bit repetitive. All in all, a nice book to lose yourself in. Will absolutely pick up the author’s next book. Thanks to MetGalley for a chance to read and review this one!

3.5 stars
A Short Walk Through a Wide World is an expansive debut novel by Douglas Westerbeke. It touches on the genres of speculative fiction, magical realism, fantasy, time travel, and a rollicking adventure story.
As the publisher’s blurb explains, the protagonist is a nine year-old girl—Aubry Torvel—in 1885 Paris, who unwittingly triggers a curse on herself as she handles a mysterious wooden puzzle ball. For the next 70 years, she is compelled to travel to new locales every 3-4 days, or die! This premise sets up a framework in which various locales and cultures are mined for color, detail, and action, as she astoundingly walks miles and miles to outdistance the curse.
The world is indeed wide as her adventures span continents, oceans, jungles and interactions with quirky residents of all. The cultures and customs are fascinating, although I felt a need to maintain a little dose of skepticism of some of the above, since this is indeed a novel rooted in fantasy.
There is a striking resemblance to elements in “The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue,” as both are young French women dealing with a curse and the necessity to keep moving from place to place. However, Aubry in this novel seems younger and more naïve, more vulnerable, as she travels, grows, and is informed by her experiences. This aspect can be a positive touch point for young adult readers.
I found the story compelling reading for the first quarter, but then it felt more like a long walk through a wide world. I think the many jumps in location and the non-linear timeline contributed to this feeling for me.
The author’s prose is what kept me engaged and is absolutely the strength of this novel. His writing is eloquent, insightful and richly imaginative.
Mr. Westerbeke is a seasoned librarian at the Cleveland Public Library and serves on an international panel for the Dublin Literary Award. He knows literature and has now applied this knowledge to the craft of writing fiction. I very much look forward to his future literary works!!

Thank you to Avid Reader Press and NetGalley for the ARC. This is my honest review

Overall, I really liked this book! By the time I started reading (thank you Netgalley for the ARC), I had forgotten why I requested it. or what it was about. Within the first chapter, I was ready to keep going. Westerbeke places us in the middle of Aubry's story, which makes for a great start to intrigue the reader, but always leaves the possibility that the reader has to catch up so much that they become uninterested. Luckily, that was not the case here. We get a strong start, and then a wonderful transition to a backstory without any awkardness of breaking the story.
I loved the style of this story- we get to follow our main character on her day-to-day journey while also hearing about her past and how she ended up where she is today. The writing was wonderful, and the descriptions of every new place always seemed fresh and never got repetitive (tricky to do when you're describing literally the entire globe). The magical realism bit (spoiler free!) was RIGHT up my alley.
My only real critique was that I thought the 55%-80% mark of the story did not add as much value as the rest of the story. The first half is a build up of learning Aubry's history and how she got to where she is today, and then we begin to veer more toward mostly present tense stories. That progression made total sense, but I think that a lot of the present tense did not have as much weight as the past did. This in no way deterred me from wanting to finish the story, but I think there was just such a precedent set with a strong first half.
The ending was a wonderful wrap up for me personally, and I think it was a way to help answer questions without seeming like the author was just trying to tie the plot into a nice, little bow. Very original take on a worldwide travel story, wonderful charcters, and a solid plot. I will certainly pick up another book by Westerbeke!

This was heartbreaking and adventurous all wrapped up in one. As Audrey looks for a cure to her curse, she desperately wants to find others to share the world with, but she's forced to keep going.

I really enjoyed this unique tale of a girl who develops a mysterious illness that will cause her to bleed to death if she spends longer than a few days in any one place. Thus, her whole life is spent travelling, seeing so much of the world and meeting so many people, but never being able to put down roots or develop long-term relationships.

Aubry's condition and her life fascinated me, but I confess that I wanted more concrete answers. The puzzle ball, her illness, the libraries--I wanted to know more! So not getting those answers left me a little dissatisfied. Other than that--quite enjoyable!

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for a free e-ARC of this book.

An interesting read overall but I found the ending lacking. I’m still not entirely sure what was meant by it. Leaving some things to the imagination is great but I felt this book just left a little bit too much to imagination and interpretation some more concrete answers would have been nice.

This novel is a wonderful mix of The Life of Addie LaRue and The Midnight Library. I loved the magical realism that imbued this amazing tale. The characters, though most brief, were defined in their roles and characters making the main character’s journey a little less lonely. A definite must read!

Aubry Tourvel traverses the world on foot, propelled only by the desire to keep moving and escape the dreadful curse that follows her. What she finds is extraordinary.

Aubry is a force to be reckoned with, going from an impudent child to one of world-weariness in the span of an evening once her illness first ravages her nine-year-old body as she comes to an understanding that "home'" as she knows it will never be an option for her again. Moving back and forth through time, with a touch of magical realism, Aubry finds herself in cities, jungles, frozen tundras, whaling boats, and even into the depths of a library that she accesses through doors only available to her. This network of book-lined passages through the earth allow her to travel vast spaces turning what would be weeks or month-long travel into a span of days.

Along her journey, Aubry encounters companions and adversaries alike, each encounter enriching her experience and shaping her outlook. In the company of friends, foes, and lovers, she embraces each fleeting connection, cherishing the depth of human experience found within each "short walk."

Douglas Westerbeke's debut novel is a captivating exploration of life's complexities, enriched by vivid imagery that elicits a sense of wonder; brining beauty, joy, and sorrow into each moment lived; especially one who can never go back.

Special thanks to NetGalley, Douglas Westerbeke and Avid Reader Press | Avid Reader Press / Simon & Schuster for an advanced e-copy of this book. Get your copy early APRIL 2024!

I wanted to like this book. I was so intrigued by the premise and the description, however, the novel itself just fell flat for me. After about a third you really were just reading the same thing over and over. I kept waiting for it to click, ramp up, and have some of the background of Aubry's illness but it never really did. I finished feeling that the book was unresolved. I considered DNFing but was convinced that it would all make since in the next chapter. Unfortunately, it never really did.

It was well researched and I appreciated the travel aspect but can't say I was particularly drawn to anything else.

Thanks to Avid Reader Press, NetGallley, Simon and Schuster and Simon Books for this copy of "A Short Walk Through A Wide World."

Oh my heavens, such an amazing, magical, captivating book! Adding to my list of best books I've ever read.

Aubry finds a puzzle ball when she's 9 and contracts a condition where she has to keep moving or she'll bleed to death.

She cannot retrace her steps and she heals quickly while she's traveling.

Aubry becomes a legend through 70 years of journeys and wandering as her story spreads around the globe.

And I won't give any spoilers about the ending! Just read it for yourself!

This book starts out interesting. The story is descriptive and flows well. I liked Aubry and felt a bit sad for her predicament. However after awhile I became a bit bored with the story and lost interest in it. If you enjoyed The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue you most likely will enjoy this one too.
Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the early copy

The blurb of this story made me eager to read A Short Walk Through A Wide World by Douglass Westerbeke. However, as I was reading it, I quickly became disappointed. The story was an interesting concept, about a young girl who contracts a weird disease that makes her constantly be on the move, but it becomes quite repetitive. The characters are well fleshed out and the world is vast but it just goes on and on without ever feeling like it goes anywhere. I did DNF this about 70% into the story so maybe it all makes sense in the end but unfortunately, I am not interested in what that ending might be. I hope this story works better for you.

Thanks to NetGalley, Avid Reader Press, and Simon & Schuster. The opinions are my own.

The moment I saw the cover of this book, I knew I needed to read it. It is hard to explain what overcame me, but I so desperately desired to read this book and did not want to wait until its release date. This book was beautifully written and it is hard for me to believe that this is Douglas Westerbeke's debut novel. He does an amazing job at immersing the reader into Aubry's world, taking both her and the reader on a never ending journey around the world. This book reminded me of short stories combined to tell one larger tale of a person. I liked feeling as though Aubry was telling her journey directly to the reader. It was hard to follow the timeline of Aubry's life, but I felt like it was on purpose. Aubry constantly remarks how she is unsure of how old she is or how long her journeys have been, just that they have happened and impacted her. My one wish would have been for a greater expansion on the libraries. While there is a sizable section of book with her in the library, there is no in depth discussion of what they really are and where they come from. I kept waiting for answers but none came. This novel touches on family, love, loss, and self-discovery. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and the many messages you read along the way.