“But books, like people, die. They die in fires or floods or in the mouths of worms or at the whims of tyrants. If they are not safeguarded, they go out of the world. And when a book goes out of the world, the memory dies a second death.”
The entirety of the novel is an homage to the art of storytelling and librarians who preserve the stories and knowledge for the next generations. The act of keeping books alive is a reoccurring motif as the narrative shifts through three different timelines and characters. The first story tells the tale of the ancient city Aethon known for its libraries; fast-forward, the account is recreated in a library five hundred years later. The novel is essentially about the power of books as they can impact individuals across several time periods. Human life is fleeting but the memories can live on in the pages or texts of a book, as such, worth preserving.
“You and I will never reach Beta Oph2, dear, and that is a painful truth. But in time you will come to believe that there is nobility in being a part of an enterprise that will outlast you.”
The author brought the story alive during a time of uncertainty—climate change, misinformation, and pandemics—thereby focuses on the faith and hope in humanity. The purpose of the three timelines is to showcase the transgenerational influence the actions of people have in human civilization. As such, expresses the interconnectedness that exists between different periods even though the previous generations have long passed. The statement is directed at the teenage protagonist of the final tale, Konstance, on the significance of their sacrifice in the future. In that, it is much more of a noble cause if the success of their mission will reverberate for generations.
“There is magic in this place, the owl seems to say. You just have to sit and breathe and wait and it will find you. He sits and breathes and waits and the Earth travels another thousand kilometers along its orbit. Lifelong knots deep inside the boy loosen.”
The present tale in Idaho highlights the connection humans have with the natural world through the character Seymour. The quotation describes the first instance Seymour experiences sensory overload in the forest surrounded by nature. Doerr humanizes the character by illustrating the grief he undergoes following the destruction of the forest and the death of the owl. Though Seymour defends nature by embracing eco-terrorism, his actions also threaten the same interconnectedness he aims to defend.
