About book Atlas Der Abgelegenen Inseln: Fünfzig Inseln, Auf Denen Ich Nie War Und Niemals Sein Werde (2009)
“The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.”~ St. AugustineAs a literary wonk who has traveled the world and grown with each adventure, I have found particular delight in "Atlas of Remote Islands", a marvelous book by Judith Schalansky.Beautiful in both aesthetics and word-craft, each page introduces the reader to one of 50 islands that have been placed like jewels by God on our rich and eclectic planet. She says “The absurdity of reality is lost on the large land masses, but here on the islands, it is writ large. An island offers a stage: everything that happens on it is practically forced to turn into a story, into a chamber piece in the middle of nowhere, into the stuff of literature. What is unique about these tales is that fact and fiction can no longer be separated: fact is fictionalized and fiction is turned into fact.”An example is her stunning description of Brava, from the Portuguese literally "Untamable"-"This clenched heart lies untamable, protected from the wind by the great volcano of the neighboring island. Here, at the outermost edge of the archipelago, the clouds hang low and it rains more than on the other islands, which are continually battered by desert winds. Dew forms on the leaves of the almond trees and the date and coconut palms, on the petals of the fringing lobelia, oleander, hibiscus, jasmine and bougainvillea. This island has veins of rivers and strong muscles in its mountain range.The faint beat of the melancholy morna sounds, and the old song pulses relentlessly in a minor key, a lament about the inescapability of fate. A yearning for a place that is at once everywhere and nowhere."Brava, indeed. Here's what I wrote when I started to read the book. It still holds:"I bought this book on a whim. I already can tell that this book falls short of my expectations... there simply is not enough information about the islands. A map, a small time-line, some information about its geographic location and a short text containing a few random bits of information. Tantalizing! However, the concept is brilliant and the book is great fun, no matter what. If anything, it whets your appetite for more. Thank god, there's Google."Addendum:Very good as a bathroom-book... and I mean: put it right next to the crapper.
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Haunting, often startling, and beautifully made. A treasure.
—AngelOfSolitude
This is a book as beautiful to hold as it is to read.
—Maurisue
