Maps of Our Spectacular Bodies
Maddie Mortimer
2022 Nominee
Desmond Elliott Prize
2022 Nominee
The Goldsmiths Prize
30 March 2023
9781529069389Synopsis
Longlisted for the Booker Prize
Winner of the Desmond Elliott Prize
Shortlisted for the Goldsmiths Prize
Longlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize
‘Original, memorable, shimmering’ - Sarah Moss
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 hopes: for more time, for more love, for more Iris.
Dancing between voices within Lia’s body and without, flitting back and forth in time, this sweeping, dazzling story of a life and what it is to let go marks the arrival of an extraordinary novelist.
'Restlessly inventive . . . delicate and persuasive' - The Guardian
‘Extraordinary, kaleidoscopic’ - Daisy Johnson
Here is a book to dance and sing about. An extraordinary, kaleidoscopic dive into languageDaisy 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 readingSarah 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
