The Selected Works of T. S. Spivet by Reif Larsen
A brilliant, boundary-leaping debut novel tracing twelve-year-old genius map maker T.S. Spivet's attempts to understand the ways of the worldWhen 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.
Now a major motion picture directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet and starring Kyle Catlett and Helena Bonham Carter.
Reif Larsen is the author of two novels for adults, The Selected Works of T. S. Spivet (a New York Times bestseller) and I Am Radar. The Selected Works was won by Penguin in a ten-house auction for almost one million dollars, and was made into a movie, The Young and Prodigious T. S. Spivet, starring Kathy Bates and Helena Bonham-Carter. He also writes articles on travel for the New York Times, GQ, and others. Reif received an MFA from Columbia University. Visit him at reiflarsen.com. Ben Gibson spends his days making charts about things like birds, cats, dogs, wizards, skyscrapers, outer space, grammar, rap music, invisible things, fruits, vegetables, sharks, bicycles, and dinosaurs at the company he co founded, Pop Chart. Pop Chart's award-winning designs can be seen in people's homes all around the world, and in collaborations with brands such as the New York Times, Esquire, GQ, Wired, HBO, and Comedy Central, among others.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780143109181 |
| ISBN 10 | 0143109189 |
| Title | The Selected Works of T. S. Spivet |
| Author | Reif Larsen |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | Penguin Putnam Inc |
| Year published | 2016-03-29 |
| Number of pages | 400 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |