Maps of Our Spectacular Bodies Synopsis
Winner of the Desmond Elliott Prize
Shortlisted: Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year - Goldsmiths Prize - Betty Trask Prize
Longlisted: Booker Prize - Dylan Thomas Prize
Maps of Our Spectacular Bodies is a story of coming-of-age at the end of a life. Utterly heart-breaking yet darkly funny, Maddie Mortimer's debut is a symphonic journey through one woman's body: a celebration of desire, forgiveness, and the darkness within us all.
'Original, memorable, shimmering' - Sarah Moss, author of Ghost Wall
Lia has only one child, Iris; her magical, awkward, endlessly creative daughter who has just entered the battleground of her teenage years. Lia and Iris have always been close, but there is a war playing out inside Lia's body, too, and everything is about to change.
As she confronts what might be the end, memories of her own childhood and a passionate love affair come rushing into her present, unearthing buried secrets and her family's deepest fears. But Lia still has hope . . . for more time, for more love, for more Iris.
The Sunday Times Book of the Year
'Restlessly inventive . . . delicate and persuasive' - The Guardian
'Extraordinary, kaleidoscopic' - Daisy Johnson, author of Everything, Under
About This Edition
ISBN: |
9781529069389 |
Publication date: |
30th March 2023 |
Author: |
Maddie Mortimer |
Publisher: |
Picador an imprint of Pan Macmillan |
Format: |
Paperback |
Pagination: |
437 pages |
Primary Genre |
General Fiction
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Other Genres: |
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Recommendations: |
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Maddie Mortimer Press Reviews
'Original, memorable, shimmering' - Sarah Moss
'Extraordinary, kaleidoscopic' - Daisy Johnson 'Restlessly inventive . . . delicate and persuasive' - The Guardian
'Here is a book to dance and sing about. An extraordinary, kaleidoscopic dive into language' - Daisy Johnson, Man Booker-shortlisted author of Everything, Under
'An original and memorable novel written in shimmering prose. The characters stayed with me long after I'd finished reading' - Sarah Moss, Women's Prize-shortlisted author of Ghost Wall and Summerwater
'Both expansive and intimate, Maps of Our Spectacular Bodies is an intricate portrait of a life hurtling towards the inevitable. An extraordinary debut.' - Kiran Millwood Hargrave, Sunday Times bestselling author of The Mercies
'A beautiful novel about death that feels completely alive, pulsing with tenderness and wit' - Megan Hunter, author of The End We Start From and The Harpy
'Lyrical and beautiful, this is a novel unlike anything else' - Stylist
'An extraordinary debut, unlike anything I've read. Wildly inventive, poetic and poignant, this is a rare gem of a novel that took my imagination to new places and touched my heart.' - Emma Stonex, Sunday Times bestselling author of The Lamplighters
'Technically dazzling . . . Mortimer has the same felicity with language as Jon McGregor, combining an incantatory prose style with imagery so acute it almost burns' - Daily Mail
'Ambitious, sprawling . . . brings to mind Eimear McBride's A Girl Is a Half-Formed Thing . . . restlessly inventive . . . delicate and persuasive . . . sharply funny' - Guardian
'It may move between different styles and moods, but underpinning it all is the book's bursting energy and, in the face of death, its verve for life' - i newspaper