The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue

In 2014, Henry, having intuited that Addie has no home, invites her to stay with him indefinitely. While he showers, she looks through the notebook they filled the previous night with the beginning of her long life story.

In 1778, Addie sees the ocean for the first time while staying in the seaside town of Fécamp, France. As food shortages grow worse and violent revolution seems imminent, Addie knows she should escape France. Nevertheless, she cannot pry herself away from her home country.

As she reads The Tempest, Luc arrives to boast that he was there when Shakespeare wrote that play. They go into a church, where they discuss the notion that if a devilish entity like Luc exists, then God must exist, too. Luc remains coy, providing no definitive answers.

In an effort to show Addie something new in New York, Henry takes her to Grand Central Station. He tells her to wait by an arched wall while he runs 30 feet away. He whispers into the wall, and she can hear him as if he is standing next to her.

It is 1789, and Paris is on fire. Two weeks after the storming of the Bastille, Addie moves through the city wearing men’s clothes she picked off a man who was murdered in the street. Addie is cornered by some revolutionaries who suspect her of espionage. Their menacing approach hastens when they see she is a woman. Their expressions go blank as Luc appears. He draws Addie into a black void and deposits her in Florence, Italy.

Addie is surprised by Luc’s eagerness to escape the blood and chaos of Paris. He tells her, “I am a god of promise, Adeline, and wars make terrible patrons” (320). Finally, Luc wants Addie to know that he did not save her from the revolutionaries for her own sake, adding, “I simply want to be the one who breaks you” (320).

At dinner with Henry, Addie tries to leave without paying, explaining that the waiter won’t even remember they were there. Henry must remind her that he is not invisible like she is and that, besides, theft is wrong. They have a small fight, but because it is Addie’s first, she believes that she just ruined their relationship. Henry gently explains that couples fight all the time. To Addie, such stable parameters for a relationship are a dream come true.

In Venice in 1806, Addie spends another of many nights with an artist named Matteo. Although he never remembers, he is also never fazed by her presence the next morning. One day, he draws a quick sketch of her in charcoal, allowing her to once again leave her mark, albeit indirectly.

Addie continues to write down her life story through Henry, who attacks the task with a feverish intensity that almost scares her.

In March 1827 at the National Gallery in London, Addie counts six works of art through which she left her mark, including a painting by Matteo based on the sketch he drew on that day in 1806.

She hears a voice say, “How clever you are” (331). Addie struggles to hide her surprise at Luc’s presence; she always assumed he could only appear on July 29, the anniversary of the curse. Addie taunts Luc with her ability to leave echoes of her existence through art, adding that his arrival today is a sign that he is as lonely as she is.

With cool anger, Luc draws her into the void and into the bedroom of a sickly deaf man sitting at a piano. It is the composer Ludwig von Beethoven. As Beethoven begs for mercy, Luc “unfolds” to steal the composer’s soul: “It is a monster. It is a god. It is the night itself, and something else, something [Addie] has never seen, something she cannot bear to look at. Something older than the dark” (333).

At his apartment, Henry takes pictures of Addie with his Polaroid camera from a variety of different angles. Somehow, her face is obscured in all of them.

In 1854, on the anniversary of the curse, Addie returns again to Villon to find it transformed with new roads and buildings. The tree Addie planted over Estele’s grave a century earlier has taken root. At nightfall, Luc arrives on schedule. He says she must be so tired, adding that he is happy to relieve her of her suffering. Addie retorts, “Tired? I’m just waking up” (343).

As Addie celebrates Henry’s birthday at the Knitting Factory music venue, her old lover Toby gets on stage and plays the song they wrote together. Overwhelmed by memories that are lost to everyone but her, Addie runs out of the venue. Henry comforts her.

On a train to Berlin in 1872, a porter demands to see Addie’s ticket, which she does not have. She tries to lose him in one of the compartments, only to find Luc there waiting for her. Once again, he draws Addie into the dark, this time bringing her to Munich. They enter an opera house to watch Richard Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde. Although Addie has heard plenty of symphonies, nothing prepares her for the dramatic potency of this opera. Luc says that a number of the opera’s performers sold their souls in return for their talent, and Addie wonders if the trade-off is worth it.

On the Fourth of July, Addie and Henry watch fireworks from Robbie’s rooftop.

On December 31, 1899, Addie spends the turn of the century in an abandoned collage in The Cotswolds, England. Luc tries to convince her to usher in the new century at a lavish party in Paris, but Addie prefers the quiet solitude of her wintry cottage.