#Bookreview of Recovering Maurice
By: Martin Zelder
Publisher: Atmosphere Press
Publication Date: September 2, 2025
ISBN: 979-8-89132-761-0
Reviewed by: Shrubaboti Bose
Review Date: July 15, 2025
Recovering Maurice is Martin Zelder’s first time creating a fictional world. This story is particularly special because of the way it holds space for characters that appear insignificant at first glance. In that, it is also unusual in its delivery, and yet surprisingly engaging in its content.
Written from a third person’s point of view, maintaining its characteristically crisp sentence structure, a reader expects to watch the story unravel from a distance, but the narrative style pulls you in and invites you on a journey that is unlike any you might have taken before. It gets almost personal, documenting memories of the protagonist like that in a memoir, shifting between each anecdote with a deftness that makes us wonder if real life events could have inspired the plot.
The story’s main character Maurice is portrayed as a socially inept person who struggles to read social situations in day to day life. He is described as ‘pathologically honest,’ naive to the extent that he is incapable of discerning between guile and deceit. His lack of social skills sets him apart from other people, making him an easy target, be it at school during his childhood or even in the workplace as an adult. Everywhere he goes, Maurice repeatedly seeks understanding, a kind of fellowship, yearning for a place to belong, a community. Despite being a little ‘different’ from those around him, he finds comfort in the company of his brother, Emil, who was also atypical in many ways. The two siblings shared a sacred bond that Maurice comes to appreciate more towards the end.
From an early age, Maurice was well aware of how his brother was special, not just as a bright infant but later on too, as a result of the many neurological surgeries and their consequential impact on his brain. Although his parents tried their best to shield him from untold challenges of having such a brother, there was evidently some residual influence on young Maurice who grew up in an environment where the sense of grief and loss was ever present. His father played an important role as his main pillar of support, always providing him with guidance, helping him comprehend and deal with setbacks, while his mother remained the firm voice of reason, giving his life the necessary framework and direction. Apart from his brother, Maurice’s parents were a great influence on him.
What is interesting about this book is that its main character, Maurice, is depicted as a socially awkward person. He is not your typical hero, not someone who is supernaturally gifted. This story is about an ordinary man, a late-bloomer in fact. Still, it touches a chord somewhere deep within us because it is essentially about someone to whom we can all relate, someone intrinsically a bit flawed like us. Seeing him stumble through the trials and tribulations of life, and at last finding a peaceful closure helps us feel reassured.
Quill says: Recovering Maurice is a book for sensitive people; it will motivate its readers to ask questions and encourage them to analyze their own experiences from a new light.
For more information about Recovering Maurice, please visit the publisher's website at: atmospherepress.com/books/recovering-maurice-by-martin-zelder
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