Maps of Our Spectacular Bodies

Summary

This lyrical, dreamlike debut novel explores a young woman’s life through the lens of her last days—as told in part by the malevolent voice of her disease.

Lia, her husband Harry, and their beloved daughter, Iris, are a precisely balanced family of three. With Iris struggling to navigate the social tightrope of teenagerhood, their bookish, tender home is a much-needed refuge. But now, Lia’s cancer has returned, and life as they knew it is changing quickly and irreversibly. In the last months of her life, Lia is determined to keep the landscapes of her past and present separate. But memory—like the body—is a porous thing.

Deftly guided across time, we steadily discover the people who shaped Lia’s youth: her difficult mother; her troubled ex-lover; her remarkable daughter. In turn, each will take their place in the battle raging within Lia’s body—at the center of which dances a cruel and mischievous narrator, who grows more emboldened by the day.

This astonishing debut novel unearths the darkness and levity of one woman’s life to symphonic effect.