A Map of Glass - Softcover

Urquhart, Jane

3.56 out of 5 stars

1,342 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 077108644X ISBN 13: 9780771086441

Publisher: Emblem Editions, 2010

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Jane Urquhart’s stunning new novel weaves two parallel stories, one set in contemporary Toronto and Prince Edward County, Ontario, the other in the nineteenth century on the northern shores of Lake Ontario.

Sylvia Bradley was rescued from her parents’ house by a doctor attracted to and challenged by her withdrawn ways.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 Woodman, a historical geographer, her world changes.

A year after Andrew’s death, Sylvia makes an unlikely connection with Jerome McNaughton, a young Toronto artist whose discovery of Andrew’s body on a small island at the mouth of the St. Lawrence River unlocks a secret in his own past. After Sylvia finds Jerome in Toronto, she shares with him the story of her unusual childhood and of her devastating and ecstatic affair with Andrew, a man whose life was irrevocably affected by the decisions of the past. At the breathtaking centre of the novel is the compelling tale of Andrew’s forebears. We meet his great-great-grandfather, Joseph Woodman, whose ambitions brought him from England to the northeastern shores of Lake Ontario, during the days of the flourishing timber and shipbuilding industries; Joseph’s practical, independent and isolated daughter, Annabel; and his son, Branwell, an innkeeper and a painter. It is Branwell’s eventual liaison with an orphaned French-Canadian woman that begins the family’s new generation and sets the stage for future events.

A novel about loss and the transitory nature of place, A Map of Glass is vivid with evocative prose and haunting imagery — a lake of light on a wooden table; a hotel gradually buried by sand; a fully clothed man frozen in an iceberg; a blind woman tracing her fingers over a tactile map. Containing all of the elements for which Jane Urquhart’s writing is celebrated, it stands as her richest, most accomplished novel to date.
From the Hardcover edition.

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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.

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