What a strange little book. Selma sees a okapi which means a death will occur…and it does eventually. But we meet a cast of characters in the truest sense. Also a Buddhist monk and a dog and a bit of a hermit. The first few chapters I almost put in away unread but continued on. I wanted to know what happen between the optician and Selma, Louisa and the monk, Marlies.
Read it to the end. Got all my answers. A strange but oddly satisfying book.

This is a German translated story of a group of villagers and their lives, superstitions, relationships, I really enjoyed reading this, however I think some aspects of the story may have been lost in translation. It was well written with interesting characters.
Many thanks to Farrar, Straus and Giroux and to NetGalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

Mariana Leky's lovely novel, "What You Can See from Here," translated from German by Tess Lewis, is one of the most charming books of the summer.  After reading half my free e-book copy, I rushed to the bookstore and purchased the book.  I am sure you've been there: you prefer turning the physical pages, or you intend to pass the book on to a friend. I love the colorful jacket, which depicts a pink okapi and a pink tree blooming with white flowers, against a pink and purple background. 

 
This gem-like novel, set in a village in Germany, is narrated by Luisa, whom we first meet at the age of 10.  Picture a group of quirky Anne Tyler characters, only not in Baltimore. In the first chapter, Luisa's grandmother, Selma, divulges her dream of an okapi the night before.  (The okapi belongs to the giraffe family and is known as the zebra giraffe.) 

Leki's style is plain but smart and sure-handed.  Her simplicity masks a deep understanding that sharpens every scene.  Leki writes,


"Selma had dreamed of an okapi three times in her life, and each time someone has then died.  That's why we were convinced her dreams of an okapi were directly connected to death.  That's how the human mind works.  It can draw connections between completely unrelated things in an instant.  Coffeepots and shoelaces, for example, or deposit bottles and fir trees."

The dream, as well as other important events, is filtered through the reactions of Luisa's family, friends, and neighbors.  The optician, who has an incurable case of unrequited love for Selma, reassures them that death and the dream are not connected.  Luisa's father, a doctor, says it is utter nonsense.  The superstitious Elsbeth, Selma's sister-in-law, however, decides to warn the mayor's wife, and soon the news is all over town.

And now Leky moves from the individual to the collective consciousness. Nobody is predictable, and Leky is not sentimental.  Love and tragedy are the stuff of everyday life here.  Luisa's best friend dies in an accident and she never quite gets over it.  Her father decides to quit his medical practice and travel all over the world.  He leaves Luisa and her mother, the town florist, with almost no warning.  Just like that, people disappear.  Luisa's mother has an affair with the owner of the ice cream parlor and is seldom home.

And perhaps that is why Luisa stays close to Selma and home.  As an adult, she leaves the village only for the county seat, where she takes a job in a bookshop.  One afternoon, Luisa meets a handsome young Buddhist monk, Frederik, who helps her find her missing dog, Alaska, in the woods.  Luisa falls in love with Frederic, but he returns to Japan. They correspond, but the years roll by.

Will Luisa ever get her act together?  Will the monk come back?  Will the optician stop writing unsent letters to Selma?  The community supports these individuals, some sympathetically, others grumpily.  A fascinating book, in which individualism is nurtured not in a city, but in a small town.

This is a sweet, sweet novel that's part coming-of-age, part ominous, and part a community coming together. When Selma dreams of an okapi one night, the entire town knows that death will follow and as they are superstitious, they attempt to ward it off. But of course it's inevitable. The second part follows Luisa as she goes into adulthood and falls in love. The third part combines both as we realize the community spirit that has kept this small German town a close-knit and loving place to be. The characters seem as real as the people you may know so you almost feel like a part of this town!

If you are looking for a page-turner, this isn't your book but I do believe the slow build is worth it. This translation of a book originally published in Germany tells the tale of a young girl and the small village she lives in. This story explores superstitions and small towns but also deals beautifully with grief and how people come together to get through it. Thank you to Netgalley for the opportunity to read this in exchange for my honest review. A truly beautiful story.

As I started this book, I became convinced it was just not for me. The characters, though well developed, were odd; the family structure strange to my thinking, in that dad was traveling to see the world, mom was busy not raising her daughter and grandma was raising her granddaughter; and the quirkiness in the entire situation was driving me crazy. By the same token, I found myself going back to this book, again and again. Then WHAM. Right in the middle of a page the sentence that changed the entire narrative. It was the moment this became a book I couldn’t put down.

Don’t miss this wonderful, funny, heartwarming story of enduring love.

Luisa is the main character in this book set in a small village in Germany. Luisa’s story is told at two ages, as a ten year old, then as a 24 year old, trying to understand life. Her grandmother, Selma, is the most present person in her life, as her father decides to travel the world and her mother works in her flower shop. There are a lot of quirky characters, including the Buddhist priest from Japan. I did feel that some of the story’s essence we lost in the translation. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC, but it is not a book I would recommend.

Courtesy of Netgalley I received the ARC of What You See From Here. This clever novel is written with quirky, eccentric, and philosophical characters who live in a close knit German village. Spanning 22 years, their intertwined lives are portrayed through faith, ethics, love, visions, dreams and elements of folklore. Everyone is connected by family or friendship, acceptance and tolerance, compassion and understanding. Truly a charming and thought provoking book, it kept me smiling!

I have been having trouble figuring out what to write for this review. What You Can See from Here is the story of Luisa in a small town in West Germany. The characters are all very odd and the book starts with a belief that when Luisa's grandmother dreams of an okapi, a zebra giraffe, someone will die in the next 24 hours. The first part of the book takes place when Luisa is 10 years old over the course of one day when all are waiting to see who dies. Then it moves to Luisa as a young adult and then seven years later where large parts of the story end.

This is a story of a village of people trying to find themselves as well as hiding what they really want to say to each other. I did not like it but I did not dislike it and I am not sure why. I don't know if it is the style, the translation, or the banality of the story but this would be a 2 for me. If someone specifically asked about it I would say give it a read but I would never recommend it to someone.

The language of this novel is just beautiful. Lyrical and evoking, it paints vivid pictures in the mind’s eye. The storyline is not something I usually read, so I struggled to stay interested - for readers of this genre I imagine this book will be a very pleasant read.

This coming of age story which was originally written in German and was beautifully translated to English, is about how families and communities can come together and move forward after experiencing loss & grief.
The story was told magically & kept me throughly engrossed in what was happening!

What You Can See From Here is set in a small village in Germany and follows the lives and connections between some quite eccentric characters over the years. It begins when Selma dreams of an okapi, which has preceded a death in the village and the villagers hold their breath waiting for one of their community to die. This book then follows the lives of these villagers in the days and years after the death in particular, Luisa, Selma’s granddaughter who was about 12 at the time.
It’s difficult for me to review this book, as I didn’t particularly enjoy it and it wasn’t the story I was expecting from the synopsis. I can appreciate why some readers would, but for me I wanted more from the characters and more from the storyline. It has some beautiful writing in it, but I found it really slow and difficult to get into and I didn’t connect with any of the characters, for me it felt a bit directionless and disjointed. Overall, it was an interesting observation of life in a small village, where some of the events verged on the superstitious and almost supernatural without ever really crossing over into the magical realism realm either. I think if you enjoyed slow, gentle stories filled with quirky, eccentric characters you would enjoy this, but personally this book wasn’t for me. Thanks to NetGalley and publisher for a digital copy for review.

I'm not exactly sure what prompted me to pick up this title, but for me it missed the mark and is not my type of book. Thank you for the chance to read and review it, I hope it finds readers better fit for this kind of story.

“On a beautiful spring day, a small village wakes up to an omen: Selma has dreamed of an okapi. Someone is about to die.”

My thanks to Farrar, Straus and Giroux for an eARC via NetGalley of ‘What You Can See From Here’ by Mariana Leky in exchange for an honest review.
It was originally published in Germany in 2017 and translated from the German by Tess Lewis.

I found this a melancholy, character-led novel that focuses upon the lives of the inhabitants of this Westerwald village. Initially the narrative explores their responses to the prophesied death. Who is going to die?

It is also a coming-of-age novel. Its central character is Luisa, Selma’s granddaughter, who is ten years old at the start. Among Luisa’s extended circle is her mother, who is struggling with whether to end her marriage. Her best friend is Martin, who has aspirations to be a weightlifter, and a family friend known only as the Optician, who is trying to find the courage to confess his love to Selma. Add to the mix her absentee father, a gorgeous wolfhound named Alaska, and various other eccentric members of the community.

When the prophesied death occurs, it shocks everyone and Luisa is changed forever. As the years pass, Luisa grows to womanhood and faces questions of love and loss, life and death, and to discover her path in life.

This is a quiet, slow burn of a novel. Twelve years after the death a chance encounter with three Buddhist monks again changes Luisa’s life and leads to a friendship between her and the youngest, Frederik. His monastery is in Japan though they write to each other and on occasion he visits Germany. Frederik’s presence allows the author to explore themes linked to philosophy and spirituality alongside the local superstitions and folklore of the region.

Overall, I found Mariana Leky’s writing very evocative. The village setting with its forest and animals such as the deer had a timelessness about it.

I always welcome reading international literature of this quality. I was quite fascinated by the okapi and agree with the author’s description of it seeming almost an implausible animal “with its zebra shanks, its tapir haunches, its giraffe-like rust-red torso, its doe eyes and mouse ears.”. An okapi peeks playfully out of the foliage on the novel’s cover.

This story opens with an omen of a village matriarch dreaming of an animal she's only seen in photographs, setting everyone on edge, since this has always been followed by a death in the village. This is really her granddaughter Luise's story, how she becomes a part of the larger world while staying in her village. Though foretold by the omen, the death comes as a shock to the entire village, tugging connections and shifting perspectives, grief overshadowing all. I love how the author infuses a little bit of magic into the story through the unusual perspectives, beliefs, and seemingly accurate superstitions. Leky's characters are all laid out for the reader, since everyone seems to know everything about everyone else, and she lets us in on all the secrets. Though emotional, it's easy to stand back from the story and see the whole picture. I was fortunate to receive this wonderful story from the publisher Farrar, Straus, and Giroux through NetGalley.

This was a surprising book for me. It captivated me from the beginning. It was a bit reminiscent of books I have read in the past by European authors. The tone was intriguing and interesting. Luisa and Martin are best friends living in a small village in the countryside. Luisa's parents are loving but vague and trapped in the drama of their own lives. She spends most of her time in the company of her dear grandmother, Selena and a few other colorful characters from the village. Tragedy strikes and her grandmother and the optician (I love his title; we do not find out his name until the end of the story) help her through to the other side of her pain.

It is a wonderful story about modern day European village life, and the richness of people who's lives are rich and colorful, and entwined throughout history. I love the additional twists of the addition of new characters - the bookstore owner, the monk, and even the evolution of some of the village characters. It's a lovely story about discovering where we belong in life, and about those who accompany us through small portions - or even larger portions- of our journey.

What You Can See From Here is a heartwarming but bitterweet coming of age story, in which a small village helps a young woman deal with loss and love. Translated from the German novel from Mariana Leky, the story relates the realities of living in a small village, from its joyous aspects and the support of its inhabitants, to the constraints, challenges, and difficulties of rising above superstition and finding your place in the world. We follow Luise from age 10 to 24 though many life experiences and the ride is unusual, intriguing, and emotional. Thank you to NetGalley for this unique read.

If you are a lover of language you will be entranced by this book. Translated from the German, what You Can See From Here, has an otherworldly flavor that made me want to highlight whole paragraphs. The story is populated by unique characters each on their own quest to find love. Across miles and years, unexpressed or fully embraced, the residents of this German village will find a place in your heart as they find their own connections. This thoroughly charming story will puzzle you and sadden you but ultimately it will leave you smiling and satisfied.

I just loved this gentle, heart-warming coming-of-age tale set in a small village in Germany. Luise is just 10 years old, when a sudden death upends her world. But her grandmother is there for her as always, just as she is for the rest of the rather quirky but good-hearted community, the strong stable centre of a sometimes hurtful world, helping them all to navigate their loves and losses. It’s a slow, but expertly paced, measured narrative, atmospheric and evocative of village life, life-affirming, insightful and tender. A wonderful read.

One of the best books I’ve read in recent years. The writing is sublime. Just beautifully done. A well crafted tale about inhabitants of a small town. Every minute detail was perfectly sculpted. I highlighted so many passages in this book that my copy looks like modern art.