Name: A Map of the World
Rating: 3.529411764705882 (17 reviews)
ISBN: 9780385720106

Jane Hamilton

A Map of the World

Jaymie Lemke

I would not recommend this book to anyone.

Mariel Adrianna de la Garza

This is the third time to read the book, and the first time I've been able to get through it. The first two times I grew bored and gave up early on. The prose is wordy and the protagonist, Alice, grated on me. And then - she grew on me. As the book continued, I saw that she wasn't wordy, but human, that this is what our voices inside must sound like to those on the outside. I usually look up books to see what they're about, what the end will be, so I can go into them more focused on the "how" than the "what." I went into this book blindly and am glad I did. The characters are full, developed. There are enough angles from which one can look at this story and its people that I at one point realized it might be the kind of book I would have been told to read in high school, so we could talk about it in class. One of the best fiction reads I've had in a while.

Francine Corry

Suzanne C.

Martha F.

Juliana

Ronda Bender

Rowan Myers

Kathy Rodger 

Casey W. 

Kelsey Lucero

Robin M Cabana

Because Alice and Howard Goodwin run a small dairy farm in the midst of encroaching suburbia, and because their whimsical ways betray their city origins, they are shunned as 'that hippie couple', outsiders in the small Midwestern town of Prairie Center. Nevertheless, they feel that they and their two daughters are living in a self-made paradise. But Alice has always believed that all it would take to fall from grace is 'one stupendous error, or else an unfortunate accident'. And one morning, while Alice is babysitting her neighbour's children, a tragic accident does occur on the farm. This sets into motion a devastating and irrevocable string of events that will change the Goodwins' lives for ever as they find themselves trapped in a nightmare from which they cannot escape. A Map of the World is a harrowing tale of guilt, betrayal and the loss of innocence. Spellbinding, lyrical, and universal in its themes, this powerful, emotional page-turner shows that Jane Hamilton is a writer of exceptional talent.

A Map of the World

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