The Mapmaker's Wife

Robert Whitaker is a science journalist and the author, most recently, of the much-acclaimed Mad in America. He has won the George Polk Award for Medical Writing and a National Association of Science Writers' Award for best magazine article. He was a finalist for the 1998 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service, considered US journalism's top prize. Robert Whitaker's long fascination with South America began in the late 1970s, when he built and lived in a bamboo hut on the Ecuadorian coast. He now lives and writes in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Robert Whitaker

"'Gripping...one of the best books I have read this year'" DAILY TELEGRAPH "'An unlikely page-turner...as a testament to frustration, endurance and mutual devotion, this takes some beating'" SUNDAY TIMES "'Enthralling...Full of mystery and danger, bravery and tragedy, with a rapturous love story at its core that transcends both time and continents. A marvellous read'" DENNIS LEHANE "'In the brilliant tradition of Dava Sobel's Longitude...combines powerful storytelling with excellent historical research in a book that reads like a novel'" ALAN LIGHTMAN, author of 'Einstein's Dreams' "'An exemplary narrative history and a fascinating tale of science, love and survival'" MARK HONIGSBAUM, author of 'The Fever Trail'