62 pages • 2 hours read
Barbara DavisThe Echo of Old Books: A Novel
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2023A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
Heartbreak, Tragedy, and Starting Afresh
Content Warning: This section of the guide contains mentions and descriptions of mental illness, death by suicide, and antisemitic sentiments.
The title The Echo of Old Books refers to Ashlyn’s ability to feel the emotions of a book’s previous owner. This leads her to Hemi’s and Belle’s books, which recount their tragic romance—a romance that serves as the main story’s central mystery. In two separate timelines, Barbara Davis tells a tale of deep heartbreak and misfortune, and through her characters, she explores how one starts over afterward.
In some ways, Hemi and Belle’s coupling is a difficult one from the beginning. They belong to different worlds, with different socioeconomic upbringings and political leanings. Despite the sparks that fly between them at their very first meeting, it is still an orchestrated one—a result of Hemi’s attempt to learn more about her father, Martin, for his article. When this ruse is eventually revealed, Belle’s sense of betrayal is heightened not only by Hemi’s deception, but also by his apparent willingness to exploit a personal tragedy: the loss of her mother to suicide.
This kickstarts a series of miscommunications that drive Hemi and Belle apart for more than four decades. Thus, Belle experiences a second great tragedy: the heartbreak of losing Hemi. Despite the distance between them, she is reminded of him every day through the existence of their son, Zachary. Hemi, too, is unable to get over the heartbreak of losing Belle, because of the numerous things left unresolved between them.
Ashlyn is drawn to Hemi and Belle’s story because she resonates with the feelings in the echoes: the sense of betrayal and heartbreak, and the lack of closure. She, too, has experienced heartbreak at Daniel’s hands, with his infidelity, his manner of death, and his last words to her. The latter, in particular, is source of deep, unresolved trauma.
Reading and resolving Belle and Hemi’s mystery is cathartic for Ashlyn, perhaps because of the similarities between Belle’s life and her own. Ethan’s presence and support throughout it all further allows her to be vulnerable with him and open herself up to the possibility of love again. Ashlyn confides in him about her childhood and her marriage to Daniel, finding that she feels better doing do, and this emboldens her to let go of the past and trust again. In this way, she, too, starts over.
Ashlyn’s hopeful attitude can be seen when she encourages Marian to choose forgiveness over the bitterness of past betrayal. Marian and Hugh are helped along in this direction when the missing pieces of their time together are discovered: Hugh’s genuine lack of involvement in the article, the true content of Marian’s note to him, and Zachary’s existence. Despite the hurt and confusion some of these revelations bring, Hugh and Marian choose to communicate rather than separate, allowing them to move forward and start afresh after all the heartbreak and tragedy they have lived through.
Two Sides of the Story
Belle and Hemi’s story unfolds through alternating chapters of their books, which provide their respective accounts of their time together. While the events coincidence, the way they each remember and feel about their relationship together differs greatly, demonstrating how there are two sides to every story.
Hemi’s and Belle’s responses to and perceptions of events, even outside of their relationship, differ from each other, owing to their respective upbringings. Hemi’s political views and Belle’s lack of investment in world events are the result of their socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds. It is impossible for Hemi not to care about the war and want to do his part to dismantle antisemitic sentiment, given how his country is embroiled in the conflict; it is equally improbable for Belle to have a strong opinion about the war, as she was raised in a family where women were actively discouraged from forming opinions or exerting agency.
Hemi and Belle also envy different parts of each other’s upbringing. Having grown up without the love and warmth of a supportive family, Belle envies the presence of the same in Hemi’s childhood. Her relationship with her family is largely defined by duty, and she is conditioned to be bound by such ideas, irrespective of whether she agrees with them. Hemi, on the other hand, is unable to completely shake off the scorn and resentment he feels toward members of Belle’s social circle. He points out the privileges Belle grew up with because of her family’s wealth and is unable to understand the kind of control her father exerts over her.
On multiple occasions, Hemi is angered by Belle’s perceived unwillingness—rather than inability—to break off her engagement to Teddy, thinking Belle is playing games with him. When Belle fails to show at the station and he reads the note she wrote, he is sure she is choosing Teddy, a wealthy man who will be able to provide her the same privileged life to which she is accustomed. On the other side of this same story, Belle feels betrayed by Hemi’s deception about the article; this sense of betrayal is only heightened when Hemi departs without notice and the article comes out anyway, although she does not know at the time that a different writer wrote it.
The existence of two separate accounts of the same story is something that intrigues Ashlyn and contributes to the mystery of what drove Hemi and Belle apart. Ashlyn is convinced that there are missing pieces, owing to the strength of conviction each lover feels about the other’s betrayal. Ashlyn sees that neither is lying about their actions or intentions, and this is confirmed when all mysteries and miscommunications are finally resolved. Thus, Hemi and Belle’s story is an example of how two perspectives can coexist and be equally valid.
The Power of Found Family
Besides romantic heartbreak, Ashlyn shares something in common with Belle that draws her to Belle’s story: their strained experiences with family. These experiences shape both Ashlyn’s and Marian’s characters significantly and affect their life choices. Thus, the idea of family is an important one in the book.
Both Ashlyn and Marian are women who don’t share strong connections with or receive adequate love and support from their biological families. Ashlyn loses both her parents at a young age, and their deaths leave her with the perception that she is not worthy of love. She sees her mother’s refusal of cancer treatment and her father’s suicide shortly after her mother’s death as them choosing to leave her. Marian, too, loses a parent to suicide: her mother, with whom she did share a close relationship. Her surviving parent, however, sees her as nothing more than a pawn to be used to further the family’s interests, and her older sister ascribes to this same, disproportionate sense of family duty.
This is what drives both characters to romances that appear doomed from the start—Hemi, with his hidden motive of learning more about Martin to expose the Mannings, and Daniel, with his toxicity and infidelity. Both Marian and Ashlyn have a deep need for love in their lives, left unfulfilled by their respective families, and this leaves them to seek it elsewhere. They do, eventually, find the love and support they need with people who are not blood relatives—and these people become closer to them than their biological family members ever were.
For Ashlyn, it is the Atwaters who provide her with a safe space through tough times and with a home after their passing. Besides Ashlyn’s gift with old books, it is this sense of security she finds in books and the bookstore that leads her to make them her livelihood. For Marian, it is Johanna who helps fill the void left by family, in multiple ways. She becomes a dear friend, but she also hands Marian a means of forming a family that she need not hide any longer: Johanna requests that Marian adopt her daughter, Ilese, and she leaves Marian with her deceased son’s birth certificate, allowing Marian to legitimize Zachary. Both of these events present Marian with the opportunity to reconnect with her mother’s faith and culture.
For both Ashlyn and Marian, their found families save them. They give both women means and purposes to go on with their lives through dark times. In a fitting ending, as Ashlyn’s and Marian’s stories intersect, their found families expand to include each other and their respective loved ones. Thus, the book ends on a celebratory note, with Ashlyn and Marian both enjoying the company of the same blended, extended, found family.
