A story you'll never forget...
In the vein of The Time Traveller's Wife and Life after Life comes a new genre-defying novel from the NYT #1 bestselling author V.E. SCHWAB.
When Addie La Rue makes a pact with the devil, she trades her soul for immortality. But there's always a price - the devil takes away her place in the world, cursing her to be forgotten by everyone.
Addie flees her tiny home town in 18th-Century France, beginning a journey that takes her across the world, learning to live a life where no one remembers her and everything she owns is lost and broken. Existing only as a muse for artists throughout history, she learns to fall in love anew every single day. Her only companion on this journey is her dark devil with hypnotic green eyes, who visits her each year on the anniversary of their deal. Alone in the world, Addie has no choice but to confront him, to understand him, maybe to beat him.
Until one day, in a second hand bookshop in Manhattan, Addie meets someone who remembers her. Suddenly thrust back into a real, normal life, Addie realises she can't escape her fate forever.
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A girl is running for her life. VILLION-SUR-SARTHE, FRANCE, JULY 29, 1714
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(@TitanBooks, 6 October 2020, 560 pages, ebook, #ARC from the publisher via # NetGalley and voluntarily reviewed)
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I knew I was going to love this book when I read the blurb. It sounded right up my street. The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue reminds me a lot of The Time Traveller's Wife and Doctor Faustus by Christopher Marlowe (which I read for an Open University course a couple of years ago. I loved the idea of it. Thankfully, this stunning book is everything I hoped and more. I fell in love with Addie who makes a pact in a moment of desperation, unaware of what she's really agreeing to or what the cost will be. I loved the way the book moves back and forth in times showing key moments and events from her long life. The book gets even better when she meets Henry, an unassuming bookshop owner who remembers her. Why can he remember her? What does this mean? What's his story? I didn't want to put this book down. It's incredible.
