Lost Geography: A Novel
4/5
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About this ebook
A heart-breaking novel by a prize-winning young writer
In a debut novel that is a triumph of wit and feeling, Charlotte Bacon explores the transitions that sixty years visit upon the members of an unforgettable family--a Saskatchewan woman and her Scottish husband; their plucky daughter, who moves to Toronto; and her remarkable daughter, who lives in France with her Turkish-English husband. Lost Geography takes the complexity of migration as its central subject: Why do landscape, work, and family lock some people in place and release others? In settings both rural and urban, these stalwart, tragically dispersed yet resilient people respond not only to new environments and experiences but to the eruption of sudden loss and change.
As the settings and characters shift in this wise, resonant book, readers are invited to see how habits of survival translate from one generation to another. How are we like our forebears? How does circumstance make us alter what our heritage has told us is important? With unfailing subtlety and elegance, Lost Geography teaches us, in a luminous sequence of intense personal dramas, that what keeps us alive isn't so much our ability to understand the details of our past as having the luck and courage to survive the assaults of both the present and history.
Charlotte Bacon
Charlotte Bacon is the award-winning author of Lost Geography (FSG, 2000) and A Private State, a collection of stories. She teaches English at the University of New Hampshire in Durham.
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Reviews for Lost Geography
17 ratings1 review
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I attended the Mendocino Coast Writers Conference in June of 2002 and had the pleasure of meeting Charlotte Bacon who was a presenter at the conference. Since she is a professor at the University of New Hampshire, we had geography in common - and I quickly bought her book which she autographed for me. Why I have waited more than five years to actually read this wonderful novel, I cannot tell you.Lost Geography is Bacon's debut novel (she has since published two other novels). The book spans nearly sixty years and follows four generations of a multicultural family. Bacon takes the reader around the world from the rural farmlands of Saskatchewan to the urban bustle of Toronto to the glamorous, brightly lit streets of Paris to the fog laden shops of London to the dusty roadways of Istanbul and finally to the glitter of New York City.Bacon's fine sense of place and lyrical descriptions make the novel a delight to read. But it is her gift at creating honest and convincing characters that keeps the reader turning the pages. Bacon uses the characters' memories and experiences to bind them together through the years, showing us that family stories can connect one generation to the other. The idea of loss and survival, and making one's unique way in the world while staying connected to those we love are strong themes in Lost Geography. Reading this novel was like sinking into a tub and letting the warm water wash over me. Bacon's prose is genuine and gorgeously constructed; her characters will make you laugh and cry; and her pitch perfect descriptions of place will set you firmly in the story.Recommended.