Maps and Legends

A collection of essays on books and why they matter by the award-winning writer of 'The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay' and 'The Yiddish Policemen's Union'. 'Maps and Legends' is a love song in 16 parts—a series of linked essays in praise of reading and writing, with subjects running from ghost stories to comic books, Sherlock Holmes to Cormac McCarthy. Throughout, Chabon energetically argues for a return to the thrilling, chilling origins of storytelling, rejecting the false walls around 'serious' literature in favour of a wide-ranging affection. His own fiction, meanwhile, is explored from the perspective of personal history: post-collegiate desperation sparks his debut, 'The Mysteries of Pittsburgh'; procrastination and doubt reveal the way toward 'Wonder Boys'; a love of comics and a basement golem combine to create the Pulitzer Prize-winning 'The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay'; and an enigmatic Yiddish phrasebook unfurls into 'The Yiddish Policemen's Union'.