Point of View

Barbara Davis uses multiple narrators and styles of narration in The Echo of Old Books. The prologue is written in a third-person point of view from an unnamed narrator, who readers later discover is Marian/Belle. The sections that follow Ashlyn in 1984 utilize a third-person omniscient perspective, relaying Ashlyn’s thoughts to the reader in addition to her actions. The Echo of Old Books contains two sub-novels: Regretting Belle and Forever, and Other Lies. Each novel is written in its entirety in The Echo of Old Books. Hemi narrates Regretting Belle in the present tense using a first-person perspective. Belle narrates Forever, and Other Lies in the present tense using a first-person perspective, as well. In 1984, Marian (otherwise known as Belle) tells her story in first person, maintaining the same present tense narration as Belle. The stories and their respective conflicts dovetail neatly into each...