The Atlas of Remote Islands by Judith Schalansky
Penguin Original / On Sale: September 28, 2010
“This beautifully illustrated atlas reveals that cartography and the creative imagination have always intersected, spurred on by human wanderlust.”
– NPR’s 2010 Favorites pick
“By book’s end, I felt that I had traveled to all 50, my mind’s wings tired from all that flapping.”
—The Washington Post
“’Paradise is an island. So is hell.’ Or so says Judith Schalansky in the introduction to her charming, spooky and splendid Atlas of Remote Islands.”
– New Yorker’s Book Bench
“…absolutely magical.”
– Conde Nast Traveler- CNTraveler.com
“The first five times (or so) that I paged through the Atlas of Remote Islands: Fifty Islands I Have Never Set Foot On and Never Will, I fell deeply in love with the book… Each of author and artist Judith Schalansky’s maps–hand-drawn in shades of gray, black, white, and brilliant orange on cadet blue paper–transported me to a, usually, remote island…”
– NationalGeographic.com
“… A testament to the transformative power of maps. Atlas of Remote Islands is a celebration of what can still be accomplished with imagination, paper and ink. Holding it, you feel as if you’ve stolen the composition book that dreamy girl in the back row of our high school English class is always scribbling into. You page through it and think, Oh, my God. She’s a genius.”
– TheMillions.com
“That impossible-to-please friend, that cranky relative, that coffee table begging for something more interesting that last Sunday’s New York Times Magazine- worry about them no more. Here is your holiday gift, your birthday present, your living room’s conversation-igniter.”
– HeadButler.com
“The most beautiful and powerful book I have ever seen like this is the Pennyroyal Caxton (King James) Bible, with haunting engravings by the genius Barry Moser. The second most beautiful and amazing book like this I have ever seen arrived, slim and stunning, on my desk days ago: Atlas of Remote Islands. For a child itching to see the world, for the child inside an aged and creaky vessel, for all of us who never stopped dreaming of faraway islands draped in amazing languages and wild stories and a wholly new angle of light, this is the perfect gift.”
– The Oregonian
ABOUT THE BOOK:
Using historic events and scientific reports as a springboard, ATLAS OF REMOTE ISLANDS creates a story around each island: fantastical, inscrutable stories, imagined realities for surviving on a few square meters of land. Rare animals and strange people abound: from marooned slaves to lonely scientists, lost explorers to confused lighthouse keepers, mutinous sailors to forgotten castaways, upstanding convicts to officials exiled in punishment; in short, a collection of Robinson Crusoes.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Judith Schalansky was born in 1980 in Greifswald and studied History of Art and Design and Communication. She lives in Berlin where she is a writer and designer, and lectures on the fundamentals of typography in Potsdam. In 2006 her typographic compendium, Fraktur mon Amour, was published, and won several design prizes. Judith has been awarded a fellowship by the Villa Aurora in Los Angeles, starting at the end of 2009.
For more information:
Press Release
Quote Sheet
Download the Cover Image
Sample Page
Books on Tap 