"New York is the pneumatic drill inside your chest cracking the barrier behind which you are hiding until it breaks. Then it grabs hold of you and drags you into the sun light in front of everyone."

The Sound of the World By Heart is one of those works I want to buy for my friends, or show in my library.

The artwork is beautiful- clean, without being simple, the story - sentimental, without being pretentiously melodramatic and pseudo- philosophical.
I had so much fun while walking the New York streets with Sam, I was happy, sometimes sad, often felt nostalgic. Because as our character shares :
" I never believed in destiny. Yet every second spent in that city gave me the impression of being exactly where everything happens because it's meant to. An impression which , in a small part, came from my own personal culture, made of characters and stories set there."

How well I know this feeling... As a foreigner in New York I often felt like this is the right place for me to be- right then and there. And ever since I left that city, I have been followed by the thought I will never have the sense of fulfillment I had there.

Thank you, NetGalley for giving me the chance to read this one in exchange for an honest review!

This graphic novel was excellent. The story line was intriguing and the artwork gorgeous. It's one of those books that I wish I could read again for the first time just to enjoy all the moments of discovery.

I received an ARC of this book in exchange for my unbiased opinion.

Sam, a photojournalist looking for a way to get over his past and a broken heart, agrees to an assignment where he spends 2 months taking numerous pictures but not talking to anyone in the city. Through his photos, the city reveals something he didn’t expect.

I really enjoyed the artwork in this graphic novel. At times, I wasn’t sure what was going on with the story. I have only read a handful of graphic novels and wanted to give another a try. I am glad I read this one.

This is the first graphic novel of this kind I've ever read, and I'm in love. It follows a photographer who went to New York but isn't allowed to speak to anyone. Things were going fine until some of the black and white photos he had printed were of a young woman in color. I love the way that the story progressed, it was a very relaxed pace but not so relaxed that you lost interest. The drawing is excellent and carries you well through the story. Overall, very interesting and would definitely recommend it.

Went to read this book and need an Adobe signin. Not even that interested.

Could not get galley to work on kindle. Was interested in title from pre-pub buzz.

I'm sorry to say but I didn't enjoy this. I absolutely love the illustrations, but the writing just all over the place rambling for me. I think it will be better if it's just a silent comic, or have minimal text, because the illustrations are absolutely gorgeous and the story seems beautiful, it's just I lost interest and feel disconnected because of the writing.

One of my favourite words is Sonder that you are a minor player in another's narrative.

A photographer challenge himself for an article to not speak to another person and just take photos.
Then the same woman keeps appearing in his black and white photos but she is in colour.

I really got into the narrative and the book talks about ideas of community that I am very interested in. The power of a city and the little moments that alter us as we pass through.

The strength of this graphic novel lies in how quiet it is. So much is told with imagery and emotion through introspection, but limited dialogue. I loved the quirks of the main character, and the way the imagery describes isolation in a crowd. It's a very unique concept done extremely well. I'll be looking for a hard copy of this one.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing a copy in exchange for this review.

A beautiful book in many ways. The story of a photographer who decides to try spending two months in New York for a story, the twist being that he cannot speak to anyone during that time. At first it's not so hard, and it makes him look at the city in a new way, but then he notices the same woman cropping up in the numerous photos he has been taking. Can he maintain his vow of silence, and more importantly should he?
As well as this story , the book is a love story to the city of New York, vividly brought to life on the page. As characters traverse the city , there are some incredibly beautiful illustrations and very moving descriptions, particularly of Central park. The artwork and colour palette used in the book is well chosen , and the one thing that really stood out as the book progressed was how beautifully the artist captured and used light to great effect. Particularly memorable was a panel with a wet street that looked almost photo like.
The writing is as beautiful as the illustration, some of my favourite passages include
"There are people who would look for or judge their ideal partner according to astrological rules, astral schemes, planetary alignments and influences.

Still, I think the only star we can rely on where love is concerned is the star we can all see. Which, in my humble opinion, divides the world into two great categories.

- Those that would rather watch it rise at the dawn
- Those that prefer it as it sets in the evening

The ideal partner is the one you find in your same category.
Full stop."

and the aforementioned passage about Central Park:
"whoever thinks there's one central park is wrong
there are thousands of central parks
one for every season, climate and weather
and one for every second, minute and hour in the day
one for every falling leaf
and one for every single ray of
sunshine filtering through the branches
there's a central park for every snow flake that settles
and one for every bit of horseshit stuck to a carriage
whoever thinks there's only one central park is wrong
and, in all honesty, I have never seen
the same park twice in my life "

Favorite part <3

whoever thinks there's one central park is wrong
there are thousands of central parks
one for every season, climate and weather
and one for every second, minute and hour in the day
one for every falling leaf
and one for every single ray of
sunshine filtering through the branches
there's a central park for every snow flake that settles
and one for every bit of horseshit stuck to a carriage
whoever thinks there's only one central park is wrong
and, in all honesty, I have never seen
the same park twice in my life

This was an odd sort of a story, but in the end I liked it despite some issues with the advance review copy (for which I nonetheless thank the publisher!).

The story felt like it went on a little longer than it ought, but it talks about something I am quite attuned to at present having been watching episodes now and then of the Netflix series called Brain Games, which delights in telling us how our brain is in many ways magical, but also easily fooled and often in surprising ways. Despite what we might think, our attention bandwidth is quite limited, and it's on the margin of this that pickpockets and illusionists ply their trade

This story is in some ways about that: about how we have blind spots and are in denial. The one in denial - denying himself social interaction (and there's more to it than just that) - is a photographer. He has undertaken with his editor, to spend two months in New York City and during that time, not speak to anyone. He pays his rent by means of his landlady sticking an envelope under his door, he filling it with the rent money, and she giving him a thumbs up through his security glass. He isn't allowed to eat in the same place regularly, so he is forced to try different venues. He navigates this by using a sign explaining that he's deaf, and asking people to please not talk to him. He writes down his meal requests. He's not even allowed to eat at home very often.

And he takes lots of photos. Despite having an electronic camera, he likes to get the prints so he can put them on his wall and examine them. But the real printing process is in his head. He takes a mental snapshot of what he just photographed, and keeps it in mind rather well. That is until he has the next batch physically printed and discovers there's a girl in them, in color, while the rest of the print is gray-scale. He doesn't recall ever seeing this redhead, and when he tries to call up the shots from his mind gallery, he cannot - they're all blank spots! It would seem that his perspective is eagle-eyed everywhere except where this girl is. Who is she and how is this happening? The answer might be different from what you expect and certainly different from what Joan of Arc, his muse in a painting in the museum, might advise.

I've never been to New York, and I'm certainly not one of these people who worships the place. My problem with those who do is that they view it through absurdly biased and rose-tinted lenses. Crime might be commendably dropping there, but it's still horrific. There is a murder pretty much every day, which is unacceptable. The homeless population of New York rose to an all-time high in 2011. Thirteen percent of all homeless people in the USA live in NYC.

At least there, they're legally entitled to shelter, but again, it's a problem that those who worship NYC choose to ignore, extolling what they consider virtues instead. For me, paeans to NYC fall on rather deaf ears because the city, notwithstanding what worshipers say, is essentially no different from any other large city. I doubt that people are particularly more friendly or antagonistic, nor more ordinary or extraordinary, nor more heroic or cowardly than anywhere else, so those views of the city tend to fall flat for me.

That said, and while this book did indulge in some hero-worship, it was kept to what I consider an acceptable level. That aside I had no complaints at all about it, except for a couple of instances where the text balloons were inexplicably blank! The balloons were there but no speech was in them! Maybe in graphic novel worlds this should be a phrase, akin to "The lights are on, but nobody's home!" - "This dude's speech balloon is blank!" I assume this will be fixed before the published copy comes out. Either that or I hope this was merely an anomaly in my copy. The missing speeches were on pps 25 & 26, and also on 120 thru 124. There was also some staining around the dates which separated the various segments of the story, like the dates had been stuck on with Scotch tape and then Xeroxed, and the Scotch tape had left a shadow! But this is a minor thing.

Overall though, and this is what truly matters to me rather than minor details, I really liked this. The illustrations, in color, are gorgeous, and the text is easy to get into and enjoy (and large enough to read on a tablet!). It was fresh and original, and it told an engaging story, so I recommend it as a worthy read.

Thank you NetGalley for providing me a free digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review

This is a beautifully illustrated graphic novel but the story left me a bit confused again and again. Also it's very slow paced.

This is a story about Sam, a photographer who decided to do a social experiment by basically isolating himself and not talking to anyone for 60 days while in New York City. Later on in the story, we learn some interesting things about Sam which then it makes me wonder what the point of the social experiment was. There are 3 people in this story - Sam, his friend Jorge (who together with Sam created a magazine. The social experiment Sam is for the magazine. Jorge is one of the narrators) and Joan, a red-haired girl who keeps popping up everywhere Sam goes (Joan is another narrator as well). I feel the story jumps from one narrative to another too much and makes it difficult to follow the story. It get a little too philosophical for me which is also why I think I couldn't really connect with it.

This is a story about love lost, love found and how we all need human interaction.

Sam is a photographer and writer. He created a magazine with his friend, Jorge. Jorge sends Sam to New York City to work on a project, and get over his girlfriend. The project is that Sam has to survive 2 months in New York, without saying a word to anyone. The only person he is allowed to communicate with is Jorge and only through texts. One day, Sam goes to pick up his photos from the printer. He ordered them all in black and white. But when he looks at them, there is a girl with red hair who is in many of the photos. She stands out in the photos because she is in colour while everything else is in black and white. Sam can't remember seeing this girl, though she is in many of his pictures. Now, Sam has to figure out why he has blocked this girl and her photos out of his memory.

This is a beautiful graphic novel. The story is amazing. It's about recovery and overcoming obstacles.

The pictures are beautiful too. They represent NYC very well. I loved how there were reflections of buildings and people in the water and any shiny objects, such as the store counters. It made the pictures realistic.

This story has multiple narrators, but unlike a traditional graphic novel it doesn't have any speech bubbles. The narrators are differentiated by coloured boxes (for example, Sam's narration is in a blue box). I like how this gives multiple perspectives of the story. The reader finds out what's happening to Sam at the same time he does.

This is a great graphic novel! I'm so glad I had the opportunity to read it.

This review will be posted on my blog on May 6, 2017.

This was a lovely little read. The art isn't jaw-dropping AAA comic work, but that's why I loved it. It's not there to try to be. The lines and detail went well with the theme; the transitions and cuts to specific instances were well thought-out and provided a nice peek into people's lives. The lilt of the dialog and the overall reader meta was something I enjoyed; I'm a big fan of poetic and philosophical narration.

The Sound of the World By Heart by Giacomo Bevilacqua is a illustrated journey originally published in Italian, and recently translated to English. An experiment in social isolation turns into a journey of self-discovery as a photojournalist commits to chronicle 60 days in New York city without talking to a single person. More than just an exercise in observation and self-control, he's hoping to forget a troubled past and mend a broken heart. But the city has a sneaky way of throwing the best laid plans and noble efforts to waste revealing secrets that lie right in front of him. All he has to do is open his eyes.

The Sound of the World By Heart is a visually stunning graphic novel that starts with a simple idea. I found that the artwork and the intent made the book a much more emotionally engaging book than I expected, although it did verge on pretentious. Samuel Page is our main character, and I will admit that I found the text hard to read on occasion, but I think that was a combination of font and my digital copy rather than something that will be an issue in a paper copy. I loved this look at contemporary New York City- and think that the visual really saved the book when the narration begins to meander a bit. I thought the love story and emotional journey was interesting, but I think the book wanted to be more philosophical that I was interested in reading, and that diminished my enjoyment a little.

The Sound of the World By Heart is a beautiful graphic novel, with a good intent but a tendency to veer off toward pretentious. However, it is worth looking through for the artwork alone.

I loved this one. Just added it to our Library's cart.

Not my thing. Pseudo-philosophical musings steeped in too much magical realism for my taste.

I have very mixed feelings about this book. To be fair, I did receive a copy from Net Galley and a good portion of the text boxes were missing. Maybe there was some information in those boxes that made the story line a little less ridiculous.

There are some good aspects of the graphic novel--the art is really beautiful. The colors are incredibly vibrant even on my iPad screen. Even the story starts out interesting and its premise is enough to hook the reader. However, the story quickly moves into the ridiculous, with plot points that really detract from the initial strength of it.

I received a free copy of this graphic novel from the publisher via NetGalley.