"Bonded in their loneliness, Alice and Mattia seem destined for each other but life and time work their cruelty and they always seem to drift farther apart."
5 Stars
Pros: For anyone who's ever felt like an outsider, Alice and Mattia are two extremely relatable characters/Every action has a consequence and precious seconds tick by, chances we should/could have taken slip past without us even knowing it and this book captures that feeling perfectly.
Cons: Though I understand that people actually "talking" to each other is an impossible feat, I think a lot of the characters problems in the story would be solved if they were actually just honest with one another/The ending left me wanting but at the same time, life doesn't always work out the way you planned it.
Full Review:
Alice and Mattia meet in high school. Alice has a stiff leg, the result of a skiing accident in her youth. As with most teenage girls, she just wants the popular girl, Viola, to like her. She's obsessed about her body and starves herself to stay thin. Mattia is astoundingly brilliant but has trouble socially and struggles with cutting himself. The urge comes from guilt caused by a terrible choice he made as a child.
Their uniqueness brings them together and they form a quiet but solid friendship. Alice is motivated, animated and driven while Mattia is perfectly content to sit in his room and solve complex mathematical equations all day. They are opposites and yet, they fit together. Their loneliness binds them, very much prime numbers amongst all the other numerals in the world.
It isn't until after Mattia graduates University and is offered a position at a school in northern Europe that things finally start moving. Mattia confesses to Alice, the terrible thing that he did in his childhood and in a moment of tenderness and understanding, they kiss. He receives the offer from the University a week later and he struggles with whether or not to accept it. Alice decides to go this house to confront him, since he hasn't spoken to her since they kissed. In his crippling awkwardness he explains that he's been offered a position, that it would be good for his career. And wounded, Alice says that apparently there's nothing here for him to stay for and she leaves.
They part on bad terms. And though they keep in touch through the years, their correspondence grows less and less. Each of their lives continues and go in different directions but always, they are in each others thoughts, brief memories and it's obvious that they miss one another. When situations in Alice's life start to unravel and she makes a startling discovery, she asks Mattia to return home and he does. When their together again, it's like old times but once they stop and think about it, take it all in, it's obvious that they've both changed.
This book was as much about connection as it was about separation. It shows how crucial every decision we make is, how even the smallest decisions have over arching consequences that could haunt us for the rest of our lives. And above all else it lays out, bluntly, how time can change everything and things we thought would always stay the same, never do. It was a truly deep, thought-provoking novel and once I picked it up, I didn't put it down.
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