Description
Book SynopsisWinner 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
Trade ReviewRemarkable . . . A tearjerker, but it's hopeful too . . .
Brave, inventive and mature * Sunday Times *
Here is
a book to dance and sing about. An
extraordinary, kaleidoscopic dive into language -- Daisy Johnson, Man Booker-shortlisted author of
Everything, UnderCompelling and uplifting . . .
undeniably impressive: Mortimer is clearly a talent to watch * Telegraph *
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
SummerwaterBrave, inventive and mature . . . a
remarkable debut * The Times, The best paperbacks of 2023 *
Lyrical and beautiful, this is a novel
unlike anything else * Stylist *
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 MerciesStriking . . . formally inventive . . .
Sadness is not allowed to crowd out wit and joy * New Yorker *
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 HarpyAn
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 LamplightersTechnically 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 *
This is a touching, eye-opening perspective on life and illness like you've never read before * Good Housekeeping *
Using word placement, font, and shape to create images on the page, Mortimer deepens the reader’s engagement with the story and characters . . . Through
breathtaking attention to detail, Mortimer crafts
a stunning novel that touches on the expanses one life can contain * Booklist (starred) *
Maddie Mortimer's
dazzling debut novel about a woman with breast cancer is
a life-affirming read - all the more so because of its proximity to death . . . While there are many books that explore these themes, it is rare to find one that does so in such an
immersive and harrowing way * Straits Times *
