The Atlas of Us

by Tracy Buchanan

[Leah]

As soon as I heard about Tracy Buchanan's debut novel The Atlas Of Us, I was desperate to read it! I thought it sounded like one of the most wonderful sounding novels, set during a time that's pretty hard to forget - the Boxing Day Tsunami in Thailand in 2004. I was super excited to take part in the cover reveal a couple of months ago - a rather stunning affair, which I presume must be an image of Thailand itself, featuring a boat, and tea lights floating in the sea and lots of different colours contrasting the darkening sky. There's a really inspiring letter in the front of the novel, from the Editorial Director of Avon, who have published the book and it promises a lot from the novel! There's a lot of build-up, a lot of promise that this is going to be a MASSIVE release in 2014, and I couldn't wait to dive in and see for myself if that was correct.

The Atlas Of Us is one of those multi-layered novels that surprises you the more you read - the premise itself sounds simple enough - a girl, Louise, heads out to Thailand days after the Tsunami hoping to find her mum, but what she finds instead is a dead body, said to be that of a journalist called Claire Shreve, but which seems to hold Louise's mum Nora's passport, along with a book named The Atlas of Us, filled with notes, and pictures, and drawings. Louise has no idea why this woman had her mum's bag, or why her mum had Claire's atlas, and she sets off on a mission around to Thailand to uncover her mum's last few days, before the tsunami struck, and to hopefully find her mum in the process. Whilst simultaneously, we learn the story of Claire, back in the late 90s and early 2000s, as she deals with learning she's infertile, and the impact that has on her marriage, along with her career as a travel journalist, which brings the mysterious Milo James into her life, he of the James clan, who people say are just a little bit mad... As we learn more of Claire's story, and as Louise's search for her mother continues, will we find out just what bound Nora and Claire together, and why they each had the other's belongings...

Going into The Atlas of Us, I expected just a simple enough story of a girl trying to find her mum, I did not expect the addition of Claire's story, which was a really, really great addition, and really added a whole other experience to the story! It was magnificent, I completely lapped up the whole book in one sitting, finding it to be one of the most fascinating, gripping books I've read so far this year! It was WAY more complicated that I expected, but in the best possible way, like I was unwrapping the most delicious story ever, and just when I thought I had it all figured out, bam!, out popped another strand, another secret, another lie exposed. It all weaved into one delicious story, and it's just my favourite type of book! I absolutely adore books where two separate storylines seem to be so far apart from each other, but as you read on, you realise perhaps they are linked, and it all just becomes one big race to discover the truth. These types of stories make my heart sing, because I love the coming together aspect of two stories, merging into one. Louise's story is a fairly simple one, and we don't spend as much time with her as I thought we would (I thought she would narrate the whole thing, actually) but it was nice to go back to her time and again to see how she was getting on in her search, along with Sam, her helper!

It's actually Claire's story that's the crux of the matter here - the one with the payoff, with the secrets and lies, and the one that needs unravelling. It's super, super interesting. At first I thought it a simple story where Claire meets Milo and they live happily ever after, but there's soooooo much more to it than that, and you'll have to read the book for all the heartbreaking deliciousness of Claire's story. What I liked best of all whilst reading The Atlas of Us was all the amazing sights! Thailand, which sounds like such a beautiful place to visit, destroyed by a wave; war-torn Serbia; snow-filled Finland; Dubai; Australia; San Francisco... Claire's a travel journalist and her life has always been about the travel, and she's spent time in some pretty amazing places, and I lapped up all the delightful journies! At times, I felt I was right there along with Claire, and Milo and Holly at times, Milo and Holly are two of the greatest charactes I think I've ever read - both so complicated, and haunted. The novel is filled with wonderful characters from Filipe in Finland, to Sam in Thailand, they all added a little something, and but it's definitely Claire and Louise who push the novel forward, each and every time.

My absolute favourite part of the novel was probably Claire's atlas. I love the idea, of an atlas filled with all your memories from travelling the globe. It's so whimsical, so fun, and it was such a thoughtful gift for Milo to give Claire, and Milo was such a hard character to read, and it was at times like that when you just wanted to sigh and forgive him everything. I would love something similar, like a book atlas (but not an atlas) to keep mementoes on my book journey! The Atlas of Us promised me the world and it very much delivered. I was sucked into Claire and Louise's journey, and I was desperately flipping the pages, because I just wanted to see how it would all turn out in the end. I can see why this book is being raved about at Avon, they have picked a star, and Buchanan is a massively talented writer, she knows what she's writing about, her travel writing is beautiful and she easily flits from first-person to third-person narrative with ease. The letter at the front of the book very much does it justice - it is warm, captivating, hard to put down, and sad and happy all at the same time and I could not recommend it more. I loved it, and I hope that if you read it, you love it, too!

This review was originally posted on Girls Love To Read