Louise flies to Thailand to find her mother a few days after a devastating tsunami hit the island. Thailand is a mess of death and despair and with the help of the son of one of her mother’s friends, she comes across a bag with a sort of journal/atlas of a writer named Claire Shreve. She never remembers her mother mentioning the name and is baffled as to how the atlas came to be in her mother’s bag and where is her mother now? As the search continues, Louise - with the help of the atlas - pieces together the story of Claire and her love of the man whom she loved beyond reason and discovers why her mother came to be in Thailand on that fateful day. This was one of the most tragic stories I’ve ever read, I was haunted by the images of the wreckage left in the wake of the tsunami and the lives ruined in that one tragic moment. The love affair between Claire and Milo was very parallel to the tragedy that love could sometimes bring to our lives and the rebuilding that must take place as life must go on. Absolutely recommend. (KARM)
The Atlas of Us, the debut novel by Tracy Buchanan, is about a woman trying to find her missing mother. The summary says: "How far would you go for the one you love the most? When Louise Fenton flies to Thailand to find her mother, Nora, after the Boxing Day tsunami, she fears the worst when the only trace she can find is her mother's distinctive bag. In the bag is a beautifully crafted atlas owned by travel journalist Claire Shreve, with her notes and mementos slipped in-between the pages. The journal tells the story of Claire's struggle to find her place in the world following a life-altering revelation, and a tumultuous love affair. Louise treks across Thailand's scarred landscape, exploring Claire's atlas to try to make sense of the connection between this woman and the mother she is so desperate to find. As devastated people are beginning to put their lives back together, Louise uncovers the secrets that nearly destroyed Claire and the man she loved - the same secrets her mother has been guarding all these years ..." The Atlas of Us is out in July 2014.