"Art Teaches Us about Life and Life Teaches Us About Art": Author Thomas Schlesser and Beth Gersh-Nesic discuss Mona's Eyes

Event begins at 1pm PT / 2pm MT / 3pm CT / 4pm ET

In English. 

Art historian and novelist Thomas Schlesser joins art historian Beth Gersh-Nesic to  discuss his brilliant coming-of-age novel about a 10-year-old girl who loses her sight for an hour and then spends a year learning how to see, guided by her beloved grandfather, Henry, whom she calls Dadé. Together they visit the Louvre, Musée d'Orsay, and Centre Pompidou to study one artwork each week because Henry wants Mona to memorize all the beauty and knowledge that art masterpieces can deliver, if indeed she becomes blind one day.  Thanks to their lively banter, Mona and the reader learn about life, love, and how to look for the wisdom artists may convey through their art.  Professor Schlesser will also tell the audience about his new novel, recently released in France, Le Chat du Jardinier (Albin Michel, 2026).

Thomas Schlesser is the director of the Hartung-Bergman Foundation in Antibes, France. He teaches Art History at the École Polytechnique in Paris and is the author of several works of nonfiction about art, artists, and the relationship between art and politics in the 20th century. He is the grandson of André Schlesser, known as Dadé, a singer and cabaret performer who founded the Cabaret L ’Écluse. Mona’s Eyes is Schlesser’s second novel and his American debut. It has been translated into thirty-eight languages, including Braille. Schlesser was awarded 2025’s Author of the Year by Livres Hebdo.

Beth S. Gersh-Nesic, PhD, is an art historian and the director of the New York Arts Exchange, an arts educational service.  Known for her publications on Picasso, Cubism, the École de Paris, and the poet/critic André Salmon, she has been contributing articles on art history to Bonjour Paris since 2016.  She has also published open-source content on Smarthistory and ThoughtCo.com, and continues to publish free content on her blog on her Substack: Beth New York.  Her most recent books are translations for Za Mir Press:  Pablo Picasso and André Salmon: The Painter, the Poet and the Portraits (2019); Pablo Picasso, André Salmon and “Young French Painting” (2022); and Ayan Before Midnight by Jean-Luc Pouliquen (2024). Now retired, she taught undergraduate students at Purchase College, Mercy University, NYU, and the College of New Rochelle.  

Mona's Eyes was Barnes and Nobles' Book of the Year for 2025:  Mona's Eyes (2025 B&N Book of the Year)|Hardcover