The Cartographer, out in February, is set in Melbourne during the 1950s and began life as a NaNoWriMo novel.
We love novels that are set in our home town of Melbourne. From the 1970s inner-city portrayed in Helen Garner's Monkey Grip, to the world of politics and crime found in Shane Maloney's Murray Whelan books.
So it is with great interest that we await The Cartographer - the debut novel from author Peter Twohig (who lives in Sydney but was born and raised in Melbourne).
The Cartographer is set in 1950s Melbourne and follows an imaginative 11-year-old boy, a year after the death of his twin brother, as he accidentally witnesses a murder and starts working out the cartography of the city to avoid running into the murderer again.
Interestingly enough the book started life as a NaNoWriMo manuscript, the first draft of 78,000 words being written during November in 2009. You can read more about the book's origins and NaNoWriMo in this Q&A with the author.
