The Geographer's Library

by Jon Fasman

Overview

"A brainy noir . . . [a] winningly cryptic tale . . . a cabinet of wonders written by a novelist whose surname and sensibility fit comfortably on the shelf between Umberto Eco and John Fowles." —Los Angeles Times

"One of the year’s most literate and absorbing entertainments." —Kirkus Reviews

Jon Fasman’s dizzyingly plotted intellectual thriller suggests a marriage between Dan Brown and Donna Tartt. When reporter Paul Tomm is assigned to investigate the mysterious death of a reclusive academic, he finds himself pursuing leads that date back to the twelfth century and the theft of alchemical instruments from the geographer of the Sicilian court. Now someone is trying to retrieve them. Interspersed with the present action are the stories of the men and women who came to possess those charmed—and sometimes cursed—artifacts, which have powers that go well beyond the transmutation of lead into gold. Deftly combining history, magic, suspense, and romance—and as handsomely illustrated as an ancient incunabulum—The Geographer’s Library is irresistible.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780143036623
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	02/28/2006
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	384
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.40(h) x 1.00(d)
Age Range:	18 - 17 Years

About the Author

Jon Fasman was born in Chicago in 1975 and grew up in Washington, D.C. He was educated at Brown and Oxford universities and has worked as a journalist in Washington, D.C., New York, Oxford, and Moscow. His writing has appeared in The Times Literary Supplement, Slate, Legal Affairs, the Moscow Times, and The Washington Post. He is now a writer and an editor for The Economist's Web site.

Read an Excerpt

Driving from Wickenden to Clougham, Joe and I saw nobody. We passed no cars on the road, and there were none in the Lone Wolf's parking lot. Driving through Clougham was like driving through a painting of Clougham. Joe and I pulled up right next to the Lone Wolf's front door. The town’s eerie, deserted feeling added to my uneasiness, and even Joe, who could probably have charmed and wheedled Puhapaev’s eviscerated corpse into conversation, said almost nothing for the entire drive. I was thinking of Hannah, of course, and vacillating between anger, sadness, concern, and confusion, all underlaid with a bit of lust and a dash of regret. My usual emotional range, in other words.

All this for what could have been an obit at the back of a newspaper that a few hundred people would have run their eyes over before throwing away, a piece I could have written on the day of his death (“Distinguished Émigré Professor Dies,” a couple of grafs about his career, maybe a complimentary sentence or two from a colleague, and that sad and stark final sentence, “He has no known living relatives”).

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"Fasman’s fast-paced tale is almost all plot... These characters are better drawn than those in The Da Vinci Code." —Newsweek

"A brainy noir . . . [a] winningly cryptic tale . . . a cabinet of wonders written by a novelist whose surname and sensibility fit comfortably on the shelf between Umberto Eco and John Fowles." —Los Angeles Times

"One of the year’s most literate and absorbing entertainments." —Kirkus Reviews

Reading Group Guide

INTRODUCTION
Stretching through time and around the world, The Geographer’s Library is an accomplished debut from Jon Fasman. With his remarkable command of language and suspense, Fasman has crafted a novel that explores how interconnected lives and deaths across countless years can collide in a single moment.

Few humans are able to escape being swallowed up by history. What is comforting, however, is that history usually waits until after we are gone to completely consume us. Paul Tomm is not so fortunate. What seems to be a routine death in a quiet New England town soon unfolds across continents and centuries as it threatens to completely overwhelm him.

As a reporter for a small local newspaper, it is Paul’s job to compile an obituary for a reclusive old professor from Wickenden, Paul’s alma mater, who was found dead at home. And so Paul begins the usually monotonous and uneventful task of gathering the necessary information. There is no family. The medical examiner has a few questions about the immaculate condition of the victim’s internal organs, but that line of questioning ends abruptly with the doctor’s unexpected death by a hit-and-run driver. Another of Paul’s sources, a thirty-one-year-old (and rather attractive) young lady, proves to offer more in the way of companionship than a scoop.

But there is clearly more to this story than a few lines in the obit column. Who made the anonymous call reporting the death? A macabre threat left on Paul’s front door makes it clear that there is a larger story, a story that doesn’t want to be written. With a little help from his gruff but caring editor, a former professor, and a small-town cop who cannot seem to stay out of trouble, Paul begins to unravel a story that becomes more mysterious with every new detail. As he investigates, the reader becomes acquainted with a series of objects that tell the history of alchemy and is offered chilling glimpses of life in the former Soviet Union, where even a person’s very breath is not his own.

As the body count increases, Paul begins to feel more and more pressure—from gentle to violent—to call off his fact-finding mission and let the dead bury the dead. His stubbornness, fueled by a drive to further his career, threatens not only to end his newfound relationship but nearly costs him his life.

 

ABOUT JON FASMAN

Jon Fasman was born in Chicago in 1975 and grew up in Washington, D.C. He was educated at Brown and Oxford universities and has worked as a journalist in Washington, D.C., New York, Oxford, and Moscow. His writing has appeared in The Times Literary Supplement, Slate, Legal Affairs, the Moscow Times, and The Washington Post. He is now a writer and an editor for The Economist's website.

 

AUTHOR INTERVIEW

What sparked your interest in alchemy?

I first came across alchemy in graduate school, when I decided that the best way to understand Renaissance English drama would be to write about medical history and the philosophy of emotion (not as tortuous as it sounds: see Burton’s marvelousThe Anatomy of Melancholy for the bridge). Alchemy fascinated me because it seemed a way of investigating the world scientifically but without the scientific method and empirically but with precepts derived from theory rather than observation. Though it has a dodgy reputation now on scientific grounds (totally justified) and as a screen for wealth generation via turning lead into gold (reductive, and less justified), it remains a beautiful pastiche of science, theology, philosophy, and total malarkey.

Please tell us about the process of researching this novel. Have you visited many of the far-flung places where the book is set?

I have visited some, but not all; books and a vivid imagination had to suffice when plane tickets were not at hand.

You make great use of the world of academia as a backdrop for mystery. Why do you think colleges lend themselves so nicely to fiction?

That’s an excellent question. I think any sort of cloistered world, near but not entirely of the so-called real world, makes an excellent setting for fiction (consider, for instance, Eco’s abbey in The Name of the Rose, or Ellis Peters’s Cadfael series), and I suppose modern readers and writers are more likely to have spent time at a college than in a monastery or prison.

In what ways has your previous work as a reporter influenced your writing?

Reporting taught me that I could make a living out of my curiosity and my natural tendency to be quiet whenever possible, for as long as possible, as soon as someone else starts talking. I was a reporter before I swerved back into academia, and I moved to Russia intending to restart my reporting career; way in the back of my mind I had a pipe dream of writing a novel. It was only when I didn’t get any responses to my query letters and pitches that I started writing The Geographer’s Library.

The complex plot of The Geographer’s Library has you shifting narration and writing from numerous points of view. Did any of these approaches prove more difficult to handle than others?

Strangely, I found Paul’s section toughest, because I was concerned about getting things “right” in describing Lincoln and Wickenden (both of which have real-life inspirations). I felt much freer to imagine places I hadn’t been than places I had.

Being a young novelist offers you the chance to mentor and advise aspiring novelists. What advice would you offer?

Remember, always remember above everything else, that writing is simply about writing and reading. It isn’t about adopting “writerly” opinions or sitting in a café with a laptop and a “writerly” novel on display. Writers are, by definition, those who write. If writing is what you want to do, read books recommended by people whose opinions you trust, and start churning out the words. Don’t worry about the trappings.

What authors do you most admire? What books have been particularly influential in the course of your development as a writer?

Too many to mention, in both cases. As much as I dislike the practice of separating fiction into genres, I have to acknowledge huge debts to writers such as Borges, Calvino, Kis, Conan Doyle, and Pavic, on the one hand, and Mosley, Pelecanos, Ellroy, and Chandler, on the other.

What are you working on now?

Another historical mystery, this time set in present-day Moscow and Washington, D.C.

 

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

Many people believe alchemy is merely about trying to turn lead into gold. But there is a rich tradition of alchemy running through many disciplines—from religion to chemistry, from literature to psychology. What are some examples?
 

Paul gets very close to one of his sources almost immediately. Do you think this is merely due to his lack of experience or might there be some other issues involved? What do you think would have happened to Paul if he had kept a professional distance between them?
 

What sort of picture does Fasman paint of life in the Soviet Union
 

Do you think Paul is afraid of his own ambition? How might the events of the novel limit or narrow his career?
 

Hannah’s asking Paul to write down everything that happened sounds vaguely similar to the request made of an Estonian poet in the novel. Despite Tonu’s promises, do you think Paul is still in grave danger?
 

Discuss the narrative device of having chapters end with descriptions of the objects from the library.
 

Looking back, Paul remembers several instances when he should have paid more attention to Hannah’s strange behavior (for example, when they first meet Tonu together). Reflect on the various occasions in the novel when greater vigilance about odd behavior might have had a decisive effect.
 

There is very little interaction between the novel’s characters and their families. Why do you think this is the case?

Editorial Reviews

"Fasman’s fast-paced tale is almost all plot . . . These characters are better drawn than those in The Da Vinci Code." —Newsweek

"A brainy noir . . . [a] winningly cryptic tale . . . a cabinet of wonders written by a novelist whose surname and sensibility fit comfortably on the shelf between Umberto Eco and John Fowles." —Los Angeles Times

"One of the year’s most literate and absorbing entertainments." —Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher

The Geographer's Library, by Jon Fasman, absolutely falls into the category of the arcane thriller, but it is a much more interesting and creative book than many of those making up the marketing wave on which it will no doubt attempt to ride. Yes, the story features obscure books in forgotten tongues, secret brotherhoods, exotic locales and clever puzzles, but Fasman comes across as a novelist genuinely interested in unraveling the convention of the thriller, and he gives his tale a delightfully and successfully postmodern flavor. And rather than presenting obscure knowledge as valuable only because it gets you things, he is far more interested in showing how physical things lead to knowledge.
— The Washington Post

David Liss

A young reporter is caught up in a deadly centuries-long treasure hunt in this puppyish but brainy debut, a thriller steeped in arcane lore and exotic history. When Paul Tomm, a reporter for the Lincoln Carrier, a small Connecticut newspaper, looks into the demise of Jaan Puhapaev, an elderly academic found dead in his cluttered house, nothing seems out of the ordinary-until the pathologist performing the autopsy is himself killed in a freak car accident. Various locals and acquaintances offer reminiscences of the late professor that suggest P hap ev was an extremely complicated (and perhaps dangerous) character. Tomm's discoveries lead him to a lovely young woman, a network of international smugglers and hidden alchemical libraries. Appealing more to the intellect than to the emotions, the book is slowed by the catalogue-like descriptions of precious objects that close many chapters, while the protagonist, however likable, is often too naive to be entirely credible. Still, some deft plotting and lively writing bode well for the author's future literary endeavors. Agent, James V. Rutman at Sterling Lord Literistic. (Feb. 7) Forecast: Fasman's novel may ride the coattails of The Da Vinci Code, though it has more in common with Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomason's Rule of Four or Carlos Ruiz Zafon's Shadow of the Wind. Seven-city author tour. Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

Esteemed professor Jaan P hap ev has been found dead in his Lincoln, CT, home, and Paul Tomm-the somewhat feckless new recruit on the local paper-is asked to write an obituary. No obit has ever led to so much trouble. As the coroner succumbs to a hit-and-run, Paul discovers that the anonymous call reporting P hap ev's death was made from a pay phone and that the professor's fortresslike office at Wickenden University (Paul's alma mater) is stuffed with books written in obscure languages but clearly unrelated to his work. Even with the help of a former professor and his detective nephew, Paul is slow to tease out what has happened-and he's completely undone by what he finally discovers. Paul's investigation alternates with various exotic and seemingly unrelated tales, starting with the theft of a sack of artifacts from the home of al-Idrisi, the king's geographer, in 1154. An end-blown flute, a pack of cards, a rough-edged coin-all these and more are sought out in far-flung locales and procured through generally bloody confrontation by shadowy figures who eventually coalesce into a brotherhood connected to P hap ev. The ultimately supernatural aspect of the brotherhood didn't quite work for this reader, but otherwise this debut tells a terrific story-it's gripping, intelligent, and beautifully wrought. Recommended for most collections. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 10/15/04.]-Barbara Hoffert, Library Journal Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

Mistaken, concealed, and assumed identities proliferate agreeably in this deftly paced debut thriller about a young reporter's accidental involvement with an elaborate history of international intrigue. After graduating from a tony Connecticut liberal-arts college, Paul Tomm is hired by a local weekly newspaper and draws the assignment to write an obituary for Jaan Puhapaev, a reclusive Estonian academic, and a seemingly unlikely murder victim-as is the local coroner who examines the professor's body. Acting on information provided by his own college mentor (ineffably urbane Professor Jadid), joining the latter's policeman nephew, Paul meets effervescent music teacher Hannah Rowe (Puhapaev's neighbor and friend), falls for her, then uncovers evidence of the dead man's collusion with globetrotting jewel thieves. But there's much, much more to the story, as we learn in juxtaposed parallel chapters that tell the story of an Arabic geographer-librarian commissioned by a 12th-century Sicilian monarch to map the entire then-known world, and of numerous invaluable objets d'art formerly possessed by the geographer (al-Idris), since sought by an expanding criminal cadre that has focused its energies on a legendary alchemical text (the Emerald Tablet), and whose searches had led to the late Puhapaev's doorstep. It sounds maddeningly complicated (and will indeed test the most seasoned thriller-reader's wits). But Fasman is equal to the daunting task, shifting at smartly judged intervals from Paul Tomm's ingenuous pursuit of the truth to murderous quests for a pair of golden flutes, an ivory box in which the breath of an Estonian poet is "stored," a deck of gorgeously hand-painted playing cards, andother treasures that lead toward the figure of sinister Russian naval commander (or spy, or perhaps smuggler) Voskresenyov, who surely cannot be as old as it seems he must be. Shades of Dan Brown, Edward Whittemore's Jerusalem Quartet, and Milorad Pavic's Dictionary of the Khazars: one of the year's most literate and absorbing entertainments. Author tour. Agent: Simon Trewin/PFD

Kirkus Reviews

What starts as a routine obituary in a small-town newspaper develops into a mystery that spans several centuries and continents. Paul Tomm sets out to write a story about a professor from his New England alma mater and discovers the professor’s life was anything but ordinary. He uncovers a trail of international artifact smuggling that reaches to Estonia, Russia, and several other countries. He also learns that the professor and others are involved in the practice of alchemy. The author jumps back and forth between the history of the artifacts and the present as Tomm unravels the chain of clues. Scott Brick is solid as narrator, giving good character to both Tomm and several Eastern European figures. R.C.G. © AudioFile 2005, Portland, Maine

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