The fourth entry of my book-related impressions and memories in the A to Z Challenge, I have a little gem. A little, because the book itself is very short, but it’s still one of the reads that stayed with me for a long time.

I’ve known Mark Twain as the creator of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, sadly not because of the books he wrote, but thanks to the anime series shown on tv. Later, I’ve read the book later, but I can hardly remember my impressions about it. I think I liked it. It was only in high school, when I learned that Mark Twain wrote also a very different story. We only had excerpts covered in class, so I went hunting on my own.

“Diaries of Adam and Eve” as one of the most beautiful pieces about love I’ve ever read. The way the author shows the two biblical characters get to know each other, live together, and start to care for each other, was moving. In the words conjured by Twain, Adam and Eve become real people, with real feelings and concerns, and we, the readers, get to peek into their lives, happy and innocent at first (most of us know how that story went), and difficult later.

All the entries are personal, though there is a clear difference between more reason-driven Adam, and full of emotions Eve. It’s through her eyes we can experience the deep love she has for her husband, and I’m in pure awe of how Twain managed to describe such feeling. It’s one of the most beautiful books about love I’ve ever read, and the ending, Eve’s prayer, and then what Adam wrote on her grave, pressed tears out of my eyes, and the sheer memory of these words can conjure my tears again, so powerful is the story Mark Twain wrote.

After I’ve read the book in my high school years, I put it away, and in a way forgot about for years, though every time my eyes would slid across the title on its back, the feelings would return. When I was already in Ireland, I felt the desire to re-read it, but this time I didn’t want a translation, I wanted to taste Twain’s original phrase. Needless to say, it was as beautiful as I remembered. And when I was packing away my books, deciding which ones to ship over to States, and which ones would be gifts for my friends, I had no doubts that “Diaries of Adam and Eve” would go with me overseas (and the book’s size and weight had nothing to do with it). Even if I didn’t have the need to read it again as the emotions and quotes still lived in my memory, I needed the book to be there. Just in case.

And writing about such a beautiful love story makes me wonder, whether there is a book about love that brought you to tears? Or a book that you feel gives justice to that complicated emotion? Feel free to share in the comments, I won’t judge, clinging to my precious copy of the Diaries.