The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet

Larsen, Reif

ISBN 10: 184655277X / ISBN 13: 9781846552779

Published by Harvill Secker, 2009

About this Item

Harvill Secker, London 2009 / Paperback. Large Format UK Uncorrected Proof. Near Fine Paperback Original, as issued (minor spotting to bottom of text-block, else Fine). Signed by the author directly to the title page, along with the sentence 'We Are Here' and an arrow pointing into the book!

Seller Inventory # ABE-1653414058612

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet
• Publisher: Harvill Secker
• Publication Date: 2009
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 184655277X
• ISBN 13: 9781846552779
• Binding: Soft cover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Condition: Near Fine
• Signed: Signed by Author(s)

About this title

Synopsis

T.S. Spivet is a 12-year-old genius mapmaker who lives on a ranch in Montana. His father is a tight-lipped cowboy and his mother is a scientist who for the last twenty years has been looking for a mythical species of beetle. His brother has gone, his sister seems normal but might not be, and his dog - Verywell - is going mad.

It's odd, but then families are. T.S. makes sense of it all by drawing beautiful, meticulous maps kept in innumerable colour-coded notebooks: maps of the countryside, maps of his family's behaviour, maps of animal and plant life. He is brilliant, and the Smithsonian Institution agrees, though when they telephone with news that he has won a major scientific prize they don't suspect for a minute that he is twelve years old.

So begins T.S.'s life-changing adventure, fleeing in the dead of night, riding freight trains two thousand miles across America to reach the awards dinner, the fame, the secret-society membership and the TV appearances that beckon. But is this what he wants? Do maps and lists explain the world? And why are adults so strange?

The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet is a story like no other: exhilarating, funny, endlessly charming and unbearably poignant. It is a journey through life's mysteries great and small, and about how on earth a boy with a telescope, four compasses and a theodolite should set about solving them.

About the Author

Reif Larsen studied at Brown University and has taught at Columbia University, where he received his MFA in fiction. He is also a filmmaker and has made documentaries in the United States, United Kingdom and sub-Saharan Africa. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.