The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet

Reif Larsen’s story is somewhat of a fairytale in the book publishing world. He wrote a whimsical novel of a 12-year-old boy - T.S. Spivet - from Montana who has been commissioned by the Smithsonian museum for years, thinking that he is a highly accomplished cartographer. The book begins with him travelling on a freight train after the Smithsonian offered him a fellowship. The premise of this book had publishers all across North America clamouring for the manuscript. After Larsen’s agent smartly refused impressive offers from W. W. Norton and Random House, the rights to the book was auctioned off, achieving almost $1 million. Penguin Group got the deal and the book was released last week - titled The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet.

Marrying a good plot with cartography and images illustrated by Larsen himself, the highly-anticipated cross-country odyssey seems to not disappoint. I have not gotten my copy yet, but I am definitely eager to get my hands all over those fascinating diagrams, as shown here.

“We had an atlas, an old National Geographic atlas from the ’60s, and I would just pore over that. I’d make up stories about these crazy places. I think, like a good story, they give you enough to sink your teeth into. A map has place names, it has a scale, they’re just so delicious to me. Like this map.” (Larsen points at a map of Penrhyn Island in the South Pacific.) “It’s so amazing. I feel one could write a million stories from this map. The Takuua Passage: What goes on there? Why does it have two names? That kind of thing. There’s a real built-in narrative.” (National Post)

“I think it’s a cool area for more exploration: how graphics and images do narrative work and talk to text.”

For more information on the book, visit Cooke Agency. Pictures sourced from Boston.