When twelve-year-old genius cartographer T.S. Spivet receives an unexpected phone call from the Smithsonian announcing he has won the prestigious Baird Award, life as normal—if you consider mapping family dinner table conversations normal—is interrupted and a wild cross-country adventure begins, taking T.S. from his family ranch just north of Divide, Montana, to the museum’s hallowed halls.

T.S.’s trip begins at the Coppertop Ranch and the last known place he stands is Washington, D.C., but his journey’s movement is far harder to track: How does one map the delicate lessons learned about family or communicate the ebbs and flows of heartbreak, loneliness, and love? There are some answers here on the road from Divide, and some new questions too.

Reif Larsen's profile page

Reif Larsen’s first novel, The Selected Works of T. S. Spivet, was a New York Times bestseller and is currently being published in twenty-nine countries. The novel was a 2010 Montana Honor Book, a Border’s Original voices Finalist, and IndieBound Award Finalist and was shortlisted for the Guardian First Book award and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize. The novel is being adapted for the screen by French filmmaker Jean-Pierre Jeunet (director of Amélie).He studied at Brown University, and has taught at Columbia University, where he received an M.F.A. in fiction. He is also a filmmaker and has made documentaries in the U.S., the U.K., and sub-Saharan Africa. He lives in New York’s Hudson Valley.