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Lost Geography

A Novel

Picador, January 2002
ISBN: 978-0-312-42052-9, ISBN10: 0-312-42052-8,
5 1/2 x 8 1/4 inches, 288 pages,
Trade Paperback, $17.00

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Categories and Subcategories

See All Categories Literature U.S. & Canada: Novels

In her triumphant debut novel, Charlotte Bacon explores the transitions that sixty years visit upon the members of an unforgettable family—a Saskatchewan woman and her Scottish husband; their independent daughter who moves to Toronto; and her daughter, who lives in France with her Turkish-English husband. In settings both rural and urban, these stalwart, resilient people respond not only to new environments and experiences but to the eruption of sudden loss. Taking the complexity of migration as its central subject, Lost Geography invites us to witness how habits of survival translate from one generation to another.

Praise

"Impressive . . . Bacon brings the acute, exquisite eye of a cartographer to this engrossing gazetteer about survival, heartache and the frayed edges of memory."—Los Angeles Times Book Review

"Lyrical and convincing . . . These stories ring true because of Bacon's skill at portraying the complex relations among husbands, wives, lovers and children."—Gloria Rohman, The New York Times Book Review

"Bacon's prose gifts shine."—The Seattle Times

"Bacon's prose is lyrical and exact. Her descriptions of the ways in which love compels risk in each generation are fresh and moving, and her portraits of several complex women, each struggling to find her unique strength and identity while passing on a sense of life's possibilities, is often exhilarating. A resonant, impressive debut."—Kirkus Reviews

"A neatly interwoven story of landscape, personal history, and survival . . . With well-drawn characters and a subtle palette for a plot, this is a very good book about loss and change."—Library Journal

"Impressive . . . [Bacon's] prose has a pleasing simplicity that makes the book a quick and pleasurable read."—Publishers Weekly

"I found myself pausing on every page to admire an apt metaphor or psychological insight. And these aren't just raisins stuck in a cake—they're seemlessly incorporated, flowing from paragraph to paragraph."—Newsday

"A gorgeous debut . . . Bacon writes with an elegant calm."—US Weekly

About the Author(s)

Charlotte Bacon

Charlotte Bacon teaches English at the University of New Hampshire in Durham. Her collection of stories, A Private State, won the PEN/Hemingway award for First Fiction. Lost Geography is her first novel.

photo: Brad Choyt