"I'm beside myself, I can barely write thisthe design on my left hand is now extended up my wrist ..."So deepens the enigma of The Tattooed Map, a richly illustrated and thoroughly captivating first novel by Barbara Hodgson. Somewhere in Northern Africa, an intrepid traveler awakens with a mysterious mark on her hand that soon develops into a detailed, macabre map spreading across her skin. As Lydia's private journal entries unfoldcomplete with fold-out maps, photographs, drawings, and handwritten notesthe reader becomes as drawn into the conundrum of the tattooed map as Lydia herself. When Lydia disappears and her friend Christopher takes up her journal to record his search for her, the situation becomes even more puzzlinguntil the book's haunting resolution. In this unique novel, as engrossing to look at as it is to read, Hodgson has crafted a spine-tingling mystery that will make armchair adventurers want to embark upon their own journeysif only they could be sure of their return.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
At one time, Lydia and Christopher were lovers as well as travel companions; now they are merely fellow travelers. While on a trip to Morocco, Lydia notices a small mark on her hand which begins to grow and spread in thin, tattooed lines that only she can see. Eventually, the marks reveal themselves to be a detailed map of an unknown land, and Lydia begins to understand that these marks, invisible to all but herself and a mysterious Moroccan man named Layesh, will lead her on a strange and perilous journey. The Tattooed Map is Lydia's journal of the days and weeks leading up to her disappearance. Each page contains her daily experiences--her growing shock and fear as the map unfolds itself, her deteriorating relationship with Christopher, her conversations with strangers--as well as the memorabilia she collects along the way: maps and postcards, train tickets and postage stamps, lists of books she's reading and souvenirs she's bought--all pasted in the margins of the journal.
When Lydia disappears midway through the journey, her friend Christopher takes up the journal, using it first as a means of recording his search for her and then, increasingly, as a clue to her fate. A combination travelogue, mystery, and ghost story, The Tattooed Map is a mesmerizing, physically beautiful book. Each page is gloriously decorated with the kinds of fascinating flotsam and jetsam that travelers find cluttering their pockets and notebooks at the end of a trip, making The Tattooed Map a book you'll want to return to again and again.
Review
The map is now growing visibly, I can see it, and it has crept above the elbow... from The Tattooed Map
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
33 of 35 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A journal for two,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Tattooed Map (Hardcover)
I chose this book at random in the library; one of
my favorite habits. This time, I was delighted with my find. Lydia's account of their travels through mysterious Northern Africa soon suck you in. As Christopher and Lydia are characterized, you identify with the traveler that you are; overplanned, with schedules coming out your ears, or laid-back, assuming that the plans will turn out all right.
I'm not going to bore you with a synopsis of the book; you can find that on the flap. What I do want to tell you about is the feeling of this book. It's an amazing adventure; you follow Lydia until she disappears, not fully understanding what's happening to her. In the second half of the journal, as Christopher tries to find out where Lydia went, the reader too is making discoveries with him. The last few pages will leave you breathless (how cliched, I know) with the parallels between Christopher and Lydia, despite their differences. This is a thoroughly creative book, reminiscent of Griffin and Sabine, but with an exotic, Mediterranean flavor.
17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
alienation and seduction and a disturbing ending,
By Lyle Hodgson (New England) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Tattooed Map (Hardcover)
The readers who were disappointed in this book because the ending was not definitive (Jeeykim, Ms. Gaucher) clearly missed Ms Hodgson's (no relation) intentions. More clearly than any other author I have read, she imbued me with what it is like to BE in Morocco, to try to live a nice logical white-woman American life in this alienating yet seductive, poor and yet rich, land of mystery. And then Livia's own body becomes the mystery. The definitive ending which the readers were looking for would defeat Ms Hodgson's well-rounded taste not only for what it is like to travel in Morocco but what it is like to try to make North American sense of this very alien experience. You can't. So the book didn't. The lesson is to discard your North American cultural maps and learn to construct a new one you will use when you immerse yourself, lose yourself, as Livia was lost to those of us who don't have the map. Livia developed the map -- and developed the ability to be part of the mystery, not the mystified.This is one of my favorite books, part mystery and part travelogue and part work of art: it is beautifully constructed. It is a book to be savored, like fine foreign chocolate, or a savory foreign dish which you know you could never divine what the herbs and spices, let alone the meat, in it are. I never wanted to go to Morocco before I read The Tattooed Map, but it's been near the top of my list ever since I did.
13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Great atmosphere, ok art, not much plot,
By
This review is from: The Tattooed Map (Hardcover)
They tried to make it look like a real journal by including handwritten calculations and lists but then the rest of it was typed which destroyed the realism of it being a journal. The art is nothing compared to Bantock's.The story could have been interesting but you're totally left hanging with no explanation at the end. The Morocan atmosphere was a great setting and the writing wasn't bad but that can't make up for its short comings as a story.
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First Sentence:
and flight numbers, important phone numbers, names and addresses, current costs, hotel room numbers, and restaurant menus. I write down the serial numbers of our traveler's checks and cross off the ones that we've spent, and I make a note of our passport numbers and issue dates in case the passports are lost-I know it's kind of dumb and kind of obsessive-but I value the memories that these trivial details recall. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
contact sheets Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Guide Bleu, North Africa, Petit Socco New!
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Front Cover | Front Flap | First Pages | Back Flap | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
and flight numbers, important phone numbers, names and addresses, current costs, hotel room numbers, and restaurant menus. I write down the serial numbers of our traveler's checks and cross off the ones that we've spent, and I make a note of our passport numbers and issue dates in case the passports are lost-I know it's kind of dumb and kind of obsessive-but I value the memories that these trivial details recall. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
contact sheets Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Guide Bleu, North Africa, Petit Socco New!
Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Front Flap | First Pages | Back Flap | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
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