Maps of Our Spectacular Bodies

Winner of the Desmond Elliott PrizeShortlisted for the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year and the Goldsmiths PrizeLonglisted for the Booker Prize and the Dylan Thomas PrizeMaps of Our Spectacular Bodies is a story of coming-of-age at the end of a life. Utterly heart-breaking yet darkly funny, Maddie Mortimer’s debut is a symphonic journey through one woman’s body: a celebration of desire, forgiveness, and the darkness within us all.‘Original, memorable, shimmering’ - Sarah Moss, author of Ghost WallLia has only one child, Iris; her magical, awkward, endlessly creative daughter who has just entered the battleground of her teenage years. Lia and Iris have always been close, but there is a war playing out inside Lia’s body, too, and everything is about to change.As she confronts what might be the end, memories of her own childhood and a passionate love affair come rushing into her present, unearthing buried secrets and her family’s deepest fears. But Lia still has hope . . . for more time, for more love, for more Iris.'Restlessly inventive . . . delicate and persuasive' - The Guardian‘Extraordinary, kaleidoscopic’ - Daisy Johnson, author of Everything, Under

Remarkable . . . A tearjerker, but it's hopeful too . . . Brave, inventive and mature, Here is a book to dance and sing about. An extraordinary, kaleidoscopic dive into language, Compelling and uplifting . . . undeniably impressive: Mortimer is clearly a talent to watch, An original and memorable novel written in shimmering prose. The characters stayed with me long after I’d finished reading, Lyrical and beautiful, this is a novel unlike anything else

Maddie Mortimer was born in 1996. She lives in London, where she works as a screenwriter and an author. Maps of Our Spectacular Bodies, her first novel, has been longlisted for the 2022 Booker Prize and the Dylan Thomas Prize, shortlisted for the Goldsmiths Prize and the Sunday Times Charlotte Aitken Trust Young Writer of the Year Award, and was the winner of the Desmond Elliott Prize.