Geography

"Geography is a sexy, courageous and utterly compelling work of fiction - the debut novel by former publisher and journalist Sophie Cunningham. An intimate tale that stretches across three continents, Geography is part travel narrative, part love story, part diary of obsession. Catherine is a travel agent. The world is at her disposal. Her family is scattered around the globe. She's never settled. She never falls in love with anyone in the place in which she lives, a quirk that seems romantic to her and her friends. Then she meets and falls in love with Michael, who lives in Los Angeles, and builds what she calls a relationship and others call an obsession. Catherine's world is soon defined by postcards, e-mail, books, movies, all of which have meaning only because of their connection to Michael. And then there are the media events which seem to effect, or follow, her affair: the Rodney King Trials, Waco, the LA Earthquake of 1994, the Sydney bushfires of 1994, the New York Blizzard of 1996, Princess Diana's death. Increasingly Catherine can't tell the difference between what is happening to her and what is happening around her. She lives her life like a romantic heroine. She throws her money, her energy, a lot of words and even years of her life, on a man she doesn't know. Her obsession becomes more and more debilitating as her life becomes increasingly virtual. It's only when she travels through Sri Lanka and India that Catherine steps fully into her own life and comes to understand that her desire was as much a place as any country she has visited. And it was a country in which she had got lost. Geography is about distance and desire. It's about the illusion of choice. And about how long it can take to figure out what the words love, and home, actually mean."--Provided by publisher