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The Selected Works of T. S. Spivet
Reif Larsen
Penguin Press
May 2009
On Sale: May 5, 2009
352 pages
ISBN: 1594202176
EAN: 9781594202179
Hardcover
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Fiction
When twelve-year-old genius cartographer T.S. Spivet
receives an unexpected phone call from the Smithsonian
announcing he has won the prestigious Baird Award, life as
normal—if you consider mapping family dinner table
conversation normal—is interrupted and a wild cross-country
adventure begins, taking T.S. from his family ranch just
north of Divide, Montana, to the museum’s hallowed halls. T.S. sets out alone, leaving before dawn with a plan to hop
a freight train and hobo east. Once aboard, his adventures
step into high gear and he meticulously maps, charts, and
illustrates his exploits, documenting mythical wormholes in
the Midwest, the urban phenomenon of "rims," and the
pleasures of McDonald’s, among other things. We come to see
the world through T.S.'s eyes and in his thorough
investigation of the outside world he also reveals himself. As he travels away from the ranch and his family we learn
how the journey also brings him closer to home. A secret
family history found within his luggage tells the story of
T.S.'s ancestors and their long-ago passage west, offering
profound insight into the family he left behind and his role
within it. As T.S. reads he discovers the sometimes shadowy
boundary between fact and fiction and realizes that, for all
his analytical rigor, the world around him is a mystery. All that he has learned is tested when he arrives at the
capital to claim his prize and is welcomed into science’s
inner circle. For all its shine, fame seems more highly
valued than ideas in this new world and friends are hard to
find. T.S.'s trip begins at the Copper Top Ranch and the last
known place he stands is Washington, D.C., but his journey's
movement is far harder to track: How do you map the delicate
lessons learned about family and self? How do you depict how
it feels to first venture out on your own? Is there a
definitive way to communicate the ebbs and tides of
heartbreak, loss, loneliness, love? These are the questions
that strike at the core of this very special debut.
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