The Echo of Old Books: A Novel

“‘Books are feelings,’ he replied simply. ‘They exist to make us feel. To connect us to what’s inside, sometimes to things we don’t even know are there. It only makes sense that some of what we feel when we’re reading would…rub off.’”

Ashlyn first discovers her psychometric abilities at the age of 12. In this scene, she confides in Frank Atwater, the owner of the bookstore she frequently visits and works in, and later comes to own. Frank’s response is one of acceptance, and he posits an explanation for her abilities. His response underlines the important role and symbolism that books play in the story. Hemi and Belle each pour all their unresolved feelings into their respective books, and in the process of reading and untangling their mystery, Ashlyn resolves her own past trauma.

“Two parents gone in the space of a month, and both had chosen to leave her. Surely the fault lay with her. Something she’d done or not done, some awful, unforgivable flaw. Like a disfiguring birthmark or faulty gene, the question had become a permanent part of her. Like the scar on her palm.”

Ashlyn sees the deaths of her parents as a comment on her own worth, as she perceives them each having chosen to leave her. This leaves her wary of trusting and opening herself up to love and intimacy, an attitude reinforced by her marriage to Daniel. Ashlyn makes a reference to the scar on her palm here, and she later tells Ethan how she acquired it. At this point in the story, Ashlyn sees it as something ugly and traumatic that she cannot resolve or erase. The symbolism of the scar changes over the course of the book.