No Two Persons: A Novel

Erica Bauermeister is the author of five novels, of which No Two Persons is the most recent. Bauermeister has taught literature and creative writing at the University of Washington and Antioch University. After earning her PhD from the University of Washington, Bauermeister co-authored 500 Great Books by Women: A Reader’s Guide and Let’s Hear It for the Girls: 375 Great Books for Readers 2-14 with Jesse Larsen and Holly Smith. This collaboration arose from Bauermeister’s love for reading and desire to promote female authors in academic curricula.

Bauermeister published her first novel, The School of Essential Ingredients, in 2009. In an interview, Bauermeister speaks to her relatively late start in publishing. She always wanted to be a writer but didn’t discover the empathy she needed to craft authentic characters until she got married, had children, and raised a family. “I think I had to get a lot older,” Bauermeister says in the interview, “before I could listen. I had to get my own ego out of the way. I had to learn how to get into other people’s heads” (“In Conversation With Erica Bauermeister, Author.” The Girl Next Door, 9 May 2016). No Two Persons exemplifies these facets of Bauermeister’s experience and lens.

The novel’s third-person narrator traces the lives of 10 distinct characters. Through her narrator, Bauermeister inhabits her eclectic characters’ diverse consciousnesses and experiences. On her website, Bauermeister says that she most often writes “about compassion—because that is what teaches us to see everything else” (“The Author: Meet Erica.” Erica Bauermeister). Bauermeister’s narrative scope and linguistic care throughout No Two Persons capture her desire to promote empathy through fiction.

Although Bauermeister didn’t begin publishing novels until she was 50, she has devoted her life to books, literature, and writing. No Two Persons explores the transformative power of such passions. Indeed, all 10 of the primary characters are connected by a single novel: the character Alice Wein’s book, Theo. The fictional novel recurs in each section of No Two Persons and in each character’s storyline. Theo is thus enlivened by each character’s unique perspective.