It’s a stark and simple book, yet elegant and evocative in its sheer depiction of isolation. And it’s absolutely beautiful.
The Atlas of Remote Islands, subtitled Fifty Islands I Have Never Set Foot On and Never Will, is a slender volume, mostly one-page descriptions of faraway islands, each accompanied by a stark and charming topographical illustration by the author.
This isn’t much of a review, simply because there’s not much to say besides: There’s no other book like it. It’s wonderful and clean and artistic and completely beyond the simple aesthetics of other illustrated books. It is the achievement of a lifetime of cartographic love, embodied in the author’s concluding sentences in her introduction:
Give me an atlas over a guidebook any day. There is no more poetic book in the world.
This is a book to be explored over countless evenings, with a glass of cognac beside you and a fire on the hearth.
This is a book to be loved.
ATLAS OF REMOTE ISLANDS by JUDITH SCHALANSKY
This is a book to be loved.
ATLAS OF REMOTE ISLANDS by JUDITH SCHALANSKY
4 comments:
There are many place you will never see and many things you will never do.Enjoy what you have seen and appreciate what you have.
But I never implied that I wanted to go to any of these lonely, abysmal, godforsaken places...
How did you come across this?
TripG, saw it online. Had to order it because it's such a niche book no physical store will carry it, except for a few quirky independents...not one of which we have anywhere near here.
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