The Cartographers

A Novel

Hardcover, 400 pages

English language

Published May 25, 2021 by William Morrow & Company, William Morrow.

ISBN:
978-0-06-291069-1
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4 stars (1 review)

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 …

9 editions

Mystery with unanswered metaphysical questions but satisfying emotional denouement

4 stars

To list the questions I have after reading the book would be to spoil some of its premise and a large part of its conclusion, so I'll just say that the inconsistencies did not ruin the way the story unfolded for me. I found the way the author inserted flashbacks from people talking to the main character about events from her early childhood to be quite clever. There's a bit of love story, and there's lots of passionate poetry about maps and how they are love letters from the people who make them to everyone else. I enjoyed it.