A Map of Glass - Softcover

Jane Urquhart

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0747581495 ISBN 13: 9780747581499

Publisher: Bloomsbury, 2005

Synopsis

Jerome is a young earth-artist spending a few months on an island in Lake Ontario. His idyll is shattered when he stumbles across a man frozen in the ice near the shore. A year later, Sylvia, a middle aged woman, shows up at his studio in Toronto. She was the lover of the dead man. Andrew's ice-encased body has haunted Jerome's dreams; Sylvia has never recovered from losing the only man she has ever loved. And now before she forgets, before the past slips irretrievably through her fingers, Sylvia wants to recount her story to the stranger who found Andrew. It is a story that stretches long and wide, beginning with Sylvia's childhood and mysterious illness; her barren marriage to a doctor obsessed by the illness and then her chance encounter with the historical geographer Andrew Woodman: their shared passion for the land and its history, the beginnings of desire, the stories he tells her of his ancestors. In the end, his own tragic illness is revealed, an illness that finally separates them. Tender, elegiac and beautifully written, Map of Glass is a deeply romantic and moving novel about the fragility of love and memory, and the redemptive power of stories.

About this title

From the Publisher

"She has claimed an urgent place as one of our most interesting and accomplished writers. . . ." —Globe and Mail

"[Her] language is vivid enough to take your breath away." — Boston Globe

From the Inside Flap

Award-winning, bestselling author Jane Urquhart's eagerly anticipated new novel is a magnificent accomplishment and her strongest to date.
Jane Urquhart's stunning new novel weaves two parallel stories, one set in contemporary Toronto and Prince Edward County, the other in the nineteenth century on the northern shores of Lake Ontario. A novel about loss and the transitory nature of place, "A Map of Glass contains all the elements for which Jane Urquhart's novels are celebrated.
Sylvia Bradley was rescued from her parents' house by a doctor attracted to and challenged by her withdrawn ways. Their subsequent marriage has nourished her, but ultimately her husband's care has formed a kind of prison. When she meets Andrew, a historical geographer, her world changes.
A year after Andrew's death, Sylvia makes a connection with Jerome, a young conceptual artist/photographer who, while executing one of his outdoor projects, discovers Andrew's body. After Sylvia escapes to the city, she shares with Jerome the story of Andrew's forebears, a story that goes back to the nineteenth century amidst the flourishing timber and shipbuilding industries of Lake Ontario. This story is the breathtaking centre of "A Map of Glass, an intricate novel enriched by moments of vivid history come to life and haunting imagery. It stands as her richest, most accomplished novel to date.

Edition details

• Publisher: Bloomsbury
• Publication date: 2005
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0747581495
• ISBN 13: 9780747581499
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 384