The Man Who Saw Everything by Deborah Levy

Let me start off by saying that this is an unusual book with a non-linear trajectory that I am not sure that I fully understand, but I did enjoy reading.  The author has been long listed for the Booker Prize three times, this book included, and it shows.

Saul Adler, a historian, is our window onto European history in the late twentieth century,  viewed through, and embodied by, the fragmented memories of a single wounded mind.

When we first meet Saul, it is 1988. He is 23 and researching the history of cultural opposition to fascism. On his way to meet his lover, Jennifer Moreau, he is knocked down by a car on the famous Abbey Road in north-west London. Superficially injured, he keeps his appointment with Jennifer, a photographer who has made Saul her subject. After they sleep together, Jennifer breaks up with him, and Saul travels to East Berlin to continue his research. There, he falls in love with his translator, Walter Müller, and also sleeps with Walter’s sister, Luna, at which point the narrative breaks. When we next see Saul it is 2016 and, again, he is run over on Abbey Road. This time, though, the accident is more serious. He is hospitalized, and drifts in and out of consciousness. As he tries to recover his memories, the events of the intervening years swim slowly into focus.  There is a lot to take in here, even though the book is quite short, and the bottom line is that everything is consequential.