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Product Description
Review
Tenderly tracing one finger over the maps, we lose ourselves in the beauty of filigree lines, points and letters. We smell the sea, hear the surf breaking, see icebergs and rocks and under our feet feel fine sand. Anyone who opens this, the most enchanting book of the autumn, is likely to get as lost as Robinson Crusoe for a while (Die Zeit )
An utterly exquisite object ... her book makes a magnificent case for the atlas to be recognised as literature, worthy of its original name - theatrum orbis terrarum, "the theatre of the world" (Robert Macfarlane Guardian ) --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.
An utterly exquisite object ... her book makes a magnificent case for the atlas to be recognised as literature, worthy of its original name - theatrum orbis terrarum, "the theatre of the world" (Robert Macfarlane Guardian ) --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.
Product Description
Judith Schalansky was born in 1980 on the wrong side of the Berlin Wall. The Soviets wouldn't let anyone travel so everything she learnt about the world came from her parents' battered old atlas. An acclaimed novelist and award-winning graphic designer, she has spent years creating this, her own imaginative atlas of the world's loneliest places. These islands are so difficult to reach that until the late 1990s more people had set foot on the moon than on Peter I Island in the Antarctic.
On one page are perfect maps, on the other unfold bizarre stories from the history of the islands themselves. Rare animals and strange people abound: from marooned slaves to lonely scientists, lost explorers to confused lighthouse keepers, mutinous sailors to forgotten castaways; a collection of Robinson Crusoes of all kinds. Recently awarded the prize of Germany's most beautiful book, the Atlas of Remote Islands is an intricately designed masterpiece that will delight maplovers everywhere. Judith Schalansky lures us across all the oceans of the world to fifty remote islands - from St Kilda to Easter Island and from Tristan da Cunha to Disappointment Island - and proves that some of the most memorable journeys can be taken by armchair travellers.
--This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
39 of 40 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I picked up just because I liked the look of it - beautifully and lovingly designed and produced. And I was entranced and bought a copy immediately - which my wife immediately purloined so I may need to buy another.
The author was new to me but the story behind the book is moving - born in East Germany and only able to conjure up a picture of the world outside from her parent's old atlas. And these are the islands that she read about - the islands and their denizens. Fascinating to read, just to dip into, or leaf through and let your own imagination wander. I actually don't want to spoil the surprise for readers so will say only that it would be a great present for both the experienced traveller and those who never leave the comfort of their armchair (and those who simply like beautiful books).
I do very strongly recommend it.
PS If you are in doubt - read the entry on St Kilda!!
The author was new to me but the story behind the book is moving - born in East Germany and only able to conjure up a picture of the world outside from her parent's old atlas. And these are the islands that she read about - the islands and their denizens. Fascinating to read, just to dip into, or leaf through and let your own imagination wander. I actually don't want to spoil the surprise for readers so will say only that it would be a great present for both the experienced traveller and those who never leave the comfort of their armchair (and those who simply like beautiful books).
I do very strongly recommend it.
PS If you are in doubt - read the entry on St Kilda!!
17 of 18 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
If it hadn't been for its place on the top of a stand in the bookshop, I would have missed it completely. It isn't an imposing book - the front cover is a self-effacing shade of blue, only a tone brighter than grey - so it was the title which caught my eye. The word Remote was picked out in italics and the simple sight of that conjured an image of windswept boulders and breakers beating on an empty shore. The addition of the word Island beneath was almost unnecessary. The book was already in my hands, the bookshop had receded and a new reality had taken over. I stood in a dream, transported to places where seagulls call like lost children over the corpses of drowned sailors, where lighthouse keepers declare themselves king or the inhabitants attempt to save their sinking land with dykes of stones and brushwood. I travelled to scraps of rock so inhospitable that they have only been visited once or perhaps twice in the whole of human history, places where babies die of unnamed illnesses or are sacrificed in bizarre rituals by people who have forgotten or never knew that there is another world beyond the boundaries of the patch of earth they inhabit.
Just the idea of an island is a deeply romantic notion. Judith Shalansky has taken this idea and transformed it into a book which is not just a collection of true and evocative tales, but is also a lovely object. Two pages are dedicated to each subject. On the right is a beautifully drawn map, reminiscent of the time when cartography was an art as much as a set of directions. Facing this is a page of information. We are given the island's geographical location, its population, the other names by which it is known, the country which has laid claim to it, the distance of the island from the mainland and a timeline of important events. Below this, a short section of prose, no more than two or three hundred words in which Shalansky gives the reader a slice of the island's history. Here we can read about the Berlin dentist who moves to an island in the Galapagos with his partner, to be joined three years later by a woman who claims to be an Austrian baroness and her two lovers. Two years later, all but one of the five are dead. Or we can learn of Tromelin, a patch of sand less than a kilometer square, now the abode of four residents, where in 1760, the French boat Utile was wrecked and the 122 survivors, marooned on this dot in the ocean, lit a fire in an attempt to attract the attention of other passing ships. Fifteen years later, Shalansky tells us, the fire was still burning.
It's a wonderful treasure of a book, one in which you can lose yourself as thoroughly as the travelers captured in its pages.
Just the idea of an island is a deeply romantic notion. Judith Shalansky has taken this idea and transformed it into a book which is not just a collection of true and evocative tales, but is also a lovely object. Two pages are dedicated to each subject. On the right is a beautifully drawn map, reminiscent of the time when cartography was an art as much as a set of directions. Facing this is a page of information. We are given the island's geographical location, its population, the other names by which it is known, the country which has laid claim to it, the distance of the island from the mainland and a timeline of important events. Below this, a short section of prose, no more than two or three hundred words in which Shalansky gives the reader a slice of the island's history. Here we can read about the Berlin dentist who moves to an island in the Galapagos with his partner, to be joined three years later by a woman who claims to be an Austrian baroness and her two lovers. Two years later, all but one of the five are dead. Or we can learn of Tromelin, a patch of sand less than a kilometer square, now the abode of four residents, where in 1760, the French boat Utile was wrecked and the 122 survivors, marooned on this dot in the ocean, lit a fire in an attempt to attract the attention of other passing ships. Fifteen years later, Shalansky tells us, the fire was still burning.
It's a wonderful treasure of a book, one in which you can lose yourself as thoroughly as the travelers captured in its pages.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
A real one-off, to be browsed in and soaked up. To see whether you would like it, look at Tromelin (page 66). The approach is allusive and wistful rather than didactic. The maps are gorgeous and the production values impressive - proper printing, bound in signatures. The translation is pretty good, I imagine catching quite a lot of the original German: just the odd thing here and there (a volcano is 'extinguished' rather than extinct...).
Something to treat yourself to if you have got an Amazon gift token!
Something to treat yourself to if you have got an Amazon gift token!
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Incredible book
This book is quite simply beautiful, the fact that the author has not visited any of the islands mentioned within only adds to the charm and imagination of the content within. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Samual Yare
A thoroughly delightful book
This book is beautifully produced and I would recommend that the hardback is worth the extra money. The text is atmospheric and personal, with potted histories of the islands on... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Big Jim
Atlas of remote islands
A sad and cynical read! I was disappointed and judging by the number of used copies for sale, so were other readers.
Published 4 months ago by username1
Utterly Exquisite
I am completely besotted: this book is wonderful. The conceit is charming. The writing is clever and engaging. The production is superb. Read more
Published 6 months ago by Booksthatmatter
A MOST WONDERFUL BOOK
I saw this book advertised in the Times newspaper and decided I must buy it. It is a lovely informative book with wonderful illustrations and I will also [like the author] never... Read more
Published 8 months ago by Mrs. L. R. Karpen
unusual book
The book is a good 'dipper-into' and can be read with ease that way if you prefer. It covers history, geography, social sciences, scientific discovery, mythology, and the purely... Read more
Published 8 months ago by Mr. Julian T. Whybra
Remote Islands
This book is absolutely and totally ingrossing. You cant put it down. One wonders how all these islands exist so far away from anyone. Read more
Published 10 months ago by I. Kemp
The magic of those dots on the map
I've always been drawn to remote islands, particularly after spending 3 weeks in St Kilda and when I came across a review of this book in the Guardian, I knew I had to get it. Read more
Published 10 months ago by Cromarty Forth Tyne
Tiny dots in the Sea
Been to a few of the Islands. Like the author probably won't get to the others. Not that I wouldn't want too.
Absoloutly worth the money, high quality publication.
Absoloutly worth the money, high quality publication.
Published 11 months ago by B. E. Archer
Islands of Dream
Potential readers will be drawn, as I was, by the wonderful sub-title to Judith Schalansky's delightful and fascinating book. Read more
Published 11 months ago by AEW Redivivus
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