My Friend the Painter, by Lygia Bojunga Nunes, will always hold a special place in my heart.

For my preferences, usually I prefer longer books, because they have more time to expand on the plot, build character, and create more exciting momentum. But My Friend the Painter is quite the short book. If you kept at it, one could finish it in no more than a day.

And even though the novel goes against my preferences, the reason I find it so great is because of the calm, yet deep and sad symbolism. Throughout the pages, there isn’t anything that will severely shock you, no extreme plot twists, or loud actions. Instead, it’s rather calm.

Just like any true painting, the novel holds deep meaning. Not just what meets the eye. There are lessons simply on life, about grief, friendship, love, and death. We meet Claudio who is friends with his neighbor, an artist.

Claudio and the painter become very good friends, each teaching the other something in their own way. The painter tells Claudio about colors: their meaning, certain magic, and emotions. But what we find- only five pages in- is that the painter is dead. The novel is of Claudio recounting his time and memory with him.

It definitely gives you something to think about. Through lost love, sadness, and time, we are all the painter. With all the stories on adventure and wild rides, My Friend the Painter changes things up a bit. It’s calm, eerily relaxing, and quite sad. For AR, the book is at a book level of 4.1  for one point, which should fit easily in everyone’s reading levels.

Take a break from the wild rides and look through life with a calm eye.