A review by novelvisits
The Man Who Saw Everything by Deborah Levy

4.0

The Man Who Saw Everything begins in September 1988 on Abbey Road in London, where Saul Alder is hit by a car while preparing have a photo taken of himself crossing the zebra crossing as a tribute to the famous Beatles album. From there the story began to flow in and out of being clear to me. Saul traveled to East Germany to do some work on his Phd., and while there seemed to be aware of detailed circumstances of the Berlin wall falling three years later. Time and again, I was confused by time frames that weren’t adding up. While this was a bit off-putting, I continued to be curious enough to read further. Saul himself was a very compelling character. Finally, just before the halfway mark, an event occurred that made everything else clear. From then on, I more easily pieced together Saul Alder’s life and very much appreciated the creative storytelling delivered by Deborah Levy. The novel itself was quite literary and I don’t think it will work for everyone, but in the end, I was very glad I read it.