A Short Walk Through a Wide World

In 1885 Paris, nine-year-old Aubry Tourvel finds a puzzle ball. She can’t open it, so she discards it, only to have it keep reappearing. Soon after, Aubry contracts a deadly disease, bleeding from the eyes, nose, and lips. The only way she can hold the bleeding at bay is to keep moving forward. She can never revisit a place she has already been, and she can only stay in one place for three or four days before her condition becomes critical and she is forced to move on. As she travels, Aubry carries her puzzle ball and a spear. Periodically, she comes upon a door that leads to an infinite underground library where she can rest, read, and learn—until the library kicks her out. Aubry grows older and older, all the while longing for an end to her travels. Saskia Maarleveld offers a sensitive depiction of Aubry, modulating her voice to embody Aubry’s transformation from a child to an older adult. Maarleveld also employs an astonishing range of accents and voices for the many people Aubry meets in her travels.