The Cartographers Published by WILLIAM MORROW on March 15, 2022 Source: Library book
Genres: Fiction / Fantasy / Contemporary, Fiction / Literary, FICTION / Magical Realism, Fiction / Thrillers / Suspense
Pages: 400
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Format: Hardcover
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A wildly entertaining, imaginative ride with a cinematic plot that keeps the pages turning. -- Real Simple
From the critically acclaimed author of The Book of M, a highly imaginative thriller about a young woman who discovers that a strange map in her deceased father's belongings holds an incredible, deadly secret--one that will lead her on an extraordinary adventure and to the truth about her family's dark history
What is the purpose of a map?
Nell Young's whole life and greatest passion is cartography. Her father, Dr. Daniel Young, is a legend in the field and Nell's personal hero. But she hasn't seen or spoken to him ever since he cruelly fired her and destroyed her reputation after an argument over an old, cheap gas station highway map.
But when Dr. Young is found dead in his office at the New York Public Library, with the very same seemingly worthless map hidden in his desk, Nell can't resist investigating. To her surprise, she soon discovers that the map is incredibly valuable and exceedingly rare. In fact, she may now have the only copy left in existence . . . because a mysterious collector has been hunting down and destroying every last one--along with anyone who gets in the way.
But why?
To answer that question, Nell embarks on a dangerous journey to reveal a dark family secret and discovers the true power that lies in maps . . .
Perfect for fans of Joe Hill and V. E. Schwab, The Cartographers is an ode to art and science, history and magic--a spectacularly imaginative, modern story about an ancient craft and places still undiscovered.
Review:
It’s a direct quote from the author’s note, but I think it sums up my feelings as I read this magical story that took a piece of actual life knowledge and blended it into a fictional story. “The more accurate a map is, the more powerful we understand it to be, that is, the world is what makes the map real. Otto G. Lindberg achieved something even more spectular, his map made part of the world real, at least for a little bit, and proved that even in this modern day and age, there are still secrets to be discovered within the folds of their pages”.
The Cartographers take a little-known fact of phantom settlements, a city on a map that does not exist, to extinguish it from a copy that someone else made to defer copyright infringement and weaves a fantasy element of they do if you have the key, ergo the map. The twists and turns in this novel that go from a secret group in their college days to modern times with the daughter and her friends are phenomenal. The glimpse is the world of maps may have you wanting to draw and make your own. Does anyone else wish the dream atlas was an actual book? I even tried to google to see if it exists. A book month of selection for march 2022 that I borrowed from the library, but I think many would enjoy this story.
About Peng Shepherd
Peng Shepherd is the nationally bestselling author of The Cartographers, The Book of M, and The Future Library.
Her second novel, The Cartographers, was a USA Today bestseller, a national Independent Bookstores bestseller, and was named a Best Book of March by The Washington Post, as well as a Pick of the Month by Good Morning America, Amazon, Apple, Real Simple, Buzzfeed, Bustle, and Goodreads, and was featured on NPR’s Weekend Edition.
Her first novel, The Book of M, won the 2019 Neukom Institute for Literary Arts Award for Debut Speculative Fiction, and was chosen as a Best Book of the Year by Amazon, Elle, Refinery29, and The Verge, a Best Book of the Summer by the Today Show and NPR On Point, and has been optioned for television.
A graduate of New York University’s MFA program, Peng is the recipient of a 2020 fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts.
She was born and raised in Phoenix, Arizona, where she rode horses and trained in classical ballet, and has lived in Beijing, Kuala Lumpur, London, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., New York, and Mexico City.
When not writing, she can be found planning her next trip or haunting local bookstores.
