Mona's Eyes: A Novel

Ten-year-old Mona and her grandfather Henry have fifty-two Wednesdays to visit fifty-two works of art in Paris's museums before Mona may lose her sight permanently. Doctors cannot explain a brief episode of blindness Mona experienced, but cannot rule out permanent vision loss. Unable to prevent his granddaughter's potential blindness, Henry decides to fill the approaching darkness with beauty. Each Wednesday for a year, they visit a single masterpiece together, from works by Botticelli to Basquiat. Through these encounters, Mona learns how each artist's work shaped the world around them, while her own perspective is transformed by the power of their art. Under her grandfather's guidance, she comes to understand generosity, melancholy, love, loss, and revolution. Mona's Eyes traces a journey across five centuries of Western art history, exploring the special bond between a girl and her grandfather while examining the beauty of life itself.