What You Can See From Here, Mariana Leky
Farrar, Straus & Giroux, June, 2021
In this international bestseller by the award-winning novelist Mariana Leky, a heartwarming story unfolds about a small town, a grandmother whose dreams foretell a coming death, and the young woman forever changed by these losses and her loving, endearingly oddball community.
On a beautiful spring day, a small village in Western Germany wakes up to an omen: Selma has dreamed of an okapi. Someone is about to die.
Luise, Selma’s ten-year-old granddaughter, looks on as the predictable characters of her small world begin acting strangely. Protesting that they are not superstitious, each of the villagers grapples with the buried secrets and deferred decisions that have suddenly become urgent in the face of death.
Luise’s mother struggles to decide whether to end her marriage. An old family friend, known only as the optician, tries to find the courage to tell Selma he loves her. Only Sad Marlies remains unchanged, still moping around her house and cooking terrible food. But when death finally comes, the circumstances are outside anyone’s expectations.
Across three defining moments in her life, Luise grapples with life's big questions alongside her devoted friends, young and old. A story about the absurdity of life and death, a bittersweet portrait of village life and the wider world that beckons beyond, it is also a thoughtful meditation on the way loss and love shape not just a person, but a community. Mariana Leky's What You Can See from Here is a charmer—a moving novel of grief, first love, reluctant love, late love, and finding one's place in the world, even if that place is right where you started.
Praise for What You Can See From Here
A BookRiot Must-Read Book of Summer 2021
“Leky’s international bestseller – beautifully translated by Tess Lewis – is witty, generous and optimistic … Leky’s vision of the world might sound whimsical but there’s something bigger, more bittersweet at play here.” The Guardian
“Charming… In her optimism and her playfulness, Leky aligns herself with other folklore enthusiasts like Helen Oyeyemi and Ali Smith… There is a satisfying spark to her short, declarative sentences; they induce reflection, and maybe even learning.”
—Katherine Hill, The New York Times Book Review
“[What You Can See from Here] is both funny and intensely moving, capturing the town’s memorable cast of characters, from superstitious Elsbeth to the lovesick, anxious optician. Leky’s novel is about the small phrases, moments, and memories that stick with us throughout our lives, and about finding despair, joy, and love in the smallest moments.” —Leah Rachel von Essen, BookRiot
“It's impossible to escape [Mariana Leky's] spell.... Infectious... generous and funny... We leave [her] world knowing that every ordinary day holds the potential for something wonderful.” —Kirkus Reviews
“[A] whimsical love story… peopled by eccentric-but-endearing characters… There is enough candor and humor, along with a handful of bracingly moody characters, to make Leky’s vision of perpetual love compelling.” —Melissa Rodman, The Arts Fuse
“Populated by quirky characters who learn there is no way to truly prepare for death or grief, Leky's novel is for those who enjoy laconic, introspective reads.” —Booklist
