My Sister Chaos

Nothing in this elegant, brilliant debut is out of place – it has obviously been crafted with thought and care. Its graceful structure reflects its content, and its compelling, well-paced plot artfully ties humanity’s most profound struggles and tragedies to maths and mapmaking.

The story is told mainly in the grammatically precise but emotionally complex words of a cartographer. Her unnamed nation was ripped apart by a brutal civil war, and she and her twin sister were forced to become refugees. After their arrival in a foreign land, her sister abandoned her. Yet life goes on. Her colleagues have little idea of what she’s survived, and no one knows that she’s wearing her last connection to her devastated country on a chain around her neck. In her own time she meticulously maps her house, confining her private life to exacting measurements and repetitive actions. Until one day, her sister shows up. While they live together, chaos gradually slips through the cracks of the cartographer’s rigidly ordered mind. Secrets are revealed in gripping, heart-wrenching sequences, and disturbing realities are confronted.