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“There are things on this earth that only exist because you have beheld them. If you weren’t there, they never would have been.”

What would it take to encounter, up close and personal, and see, really see, the world around you – to appreciate the things you can comprehend, and to open yourself, fully with no holding back, to the wonders you cannot. Both the deadly and the divine.

For Aubry Tourvel, these are not merely philosophical questions.

For Aubry is cursed.

From the age of nine years old, Aubry has been burdened with a mysterious ailment which causes her to experience an agonizing medical decline when she remains in the same physical place for more than a few days. Set in the late 1800’s, Aubry must roam the world – alone and fierce – in an exploratory role unheard of for girls, or even women, of the time. Trapped into a forced lifelong exile that pits her against an entire wide world of jungles, rivers, mountains and deserts, Aubry must face head-on whatever may befall her.

Along the way, Aubry will also learn about love and it’s misfirings, and just what is, or is not, available to her, in her unavoidably nomadic existence. For Aubry, a lifetime’s loss of “home” (and all that it implies) may very well be her permanent future.

Aubry’s story is a strange and colorful one – a meandering fable peppered with fascinating adventures and a myriad of characters she encounters across the globe – ultimately revealing itself to be an enchanting and magical look at human consciousness, our deeply-rooted connection to the wide world around us, the mystifying nature of time, and the sublime miracle of simply “being”.

With big, bold (often wonderfully chaotic) imagery, encompassing vast geographical vistas, amidst an atlas of far-off and exotic locations, this story is an imaginative feast to serve the explorer in all of us.

Destined to please readers of Fantasy and Magical Realism, along with lovers of a good story everywhere, this book a sheer delight, and one this reader found herself savoring in a single read almost straight through.

A great big thank you to Netgalley, the author and the publisher for an ARC of this book. All thoughts presented are my own.