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    The Map of True Places
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    The Map of True Places
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    The Map of True Places
    Audiobook11 hours

    The Map of True Places

    Written by Brunonia Barry

    Narrated by Caitlin Thorburn

    4/5

    ()

    Unavailable in your country

    Unavailable in your country

    About this audiobook

    From the author of The Lace Reader comes an emotionally resonant novel of tragedy, secrets, identity, and love.

    Zee Finch has a career as a respected psychotherapist and she’s about to get married, but the shocking death of Zee’s most troubled patient brings to the surface secrets in Zee’s own life.

    Zee is finally forced to confront the truth behind her mother’s death and the unfinished story she left behind. With a rich atmosphere, colourful, memorable, engaging characters, Brunonia Barry has written a wonderful new novel that will appeal to fans of THE LACE READER but also to new readers who enjoy sophisticated, emotionally gripping fiction.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins Publishers
    Release dateFeb 3, 2011
    ISBN9780007421206
    Unavailable
    The Map of True Places
    Author

    Brunonia Barry

    Born and raised in Massachusetts, Brunonia Barry studied literature and creative writing at Green Mountain College in Vermont and at the University of New Hampshire. After nearly a decade in Hollywood, Barry returned to Massachusetts, where, along with her husband, she founded an innovative company that creates award-winning word, visual and logic puzzles. Happily married, Barry lives with her husband and her twelve-year old Golden Retriever named Byzantium

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    Reviews for The Map of True Places

    4/5

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    • 3/5
      Zee Finch is a respected psychotherepist. One of her patients jumps off a bridge and Zee puts her career on hold and returns home to care for her father and to find answers to her own mother's suicide.
    • 5/5
      Once again the story was well told. Loved the twist and turns of the book.
    • 4/5
      Zee Finch loses her mother at a young age and ends up spending part of her childhood stealing boats— which has earned her the nickname Trouble. She's now a psychotherapist and is about to marry Michael. But the suicide of her patient Lilly throws Zee into emotional chaos and takes her to Salem after Lilly's funeral where her father, Finch, long ago diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, has been hiding how sick he really is. His longtime companion, Melville, has moved out, and it now falls to Zee to help her father.
      Zee becomes overwhelmed by her new role as caregiver, and becomes uncertain about her future. She meets Hawks and they set out on a relationship that brings back memories of a story her mother wrote. There are several twists and turns in this story. You feel for Zee struggling to do the right thing for Finch and also for Melville who loves Finch dearly yet has been thrown out of the house by Finch. I enjoyed this book more than I thought I would.
    • 3/5
      I enjoyed the characters in the book. I enjoyed the writing style. However, the book got jumbled for me trying to deal with too many issues:Mental illnessRole of caregiverAbuseMarriageInfidelitySuicideDoctor-patient relationshipLoveIt was just too much for me. I would have enjoyed seeing fewer of the story lines but each one more developed.
    • 5/5
      Readers rejoice! Brunonia Barry, author of The Lace Reader, is back with another gripping novel of human relationships and their consequences. It's again set in Salem, with some returning characters, which made it very easy to fall into the place and just flow with the story. Zee Finch, a psychotherapist, has come home to take care of her ailing father and to try to figure out her own life after the suicide of one of her patients, which was made even more difficult by Zee's past--her mother committed suicide herself, in front of her. There is a complex weave of past and present, love and betrayals, beginnings and endings in this story that reads quickly and leaves you longing for Barry's next book and a chance to visit her Salem yet again.
    • 5/5
      This could have been a really depressing book. After all the subjects are suicide, bi-polar disorder, Parkinson's disease, betrayal, and depression. Instead of leaving the reader reaching for the Prozac bottle, the story ends leaving the reader with a tad bit of a letdown--(more on that later).It is a great story about a story, and about a young woman's search for herself, her mother, and her future. Zee Finch is a pyschologist whose patient (a young woman close to her age) jumps off a bridge when she should have been at her appointment with Zee. Since Lilly (the patient) reminds Zee of her own mother whose bi-polar disease caused her to commit suicide when Zee was 13, our heroine is doubly bummed. In addition, her fiance is pressuring her to make plans for their scheduled wedding and Zee seems unable to make any decisions.She instead chooses to go home to see her father, whom everyone calls "Finch," a noted Hawthorne scholar who lives directly across the street from Hawthorne's house in Salem. Finch suffers from Parkinson's disease, and it becomes immediately evident to Zee that his condition has dramatically worsened. The story that follows is touching. To tell the rest of the story here would be to ruin an excellent read. The short chapters, the crisp prose, the building suspense surrounding several characters, all lend themselves to keeping the reader awake long past bedtime.I almost wish this book didn't have an epilogue. Although the story's ending is quite well-done, the epilogue seems to have been written to answer all the questions a reader might have about "what happened after that?" Instead of leaving us with a delightful suspicion and willing to use our own imagination to write several different scenarios of what might have been, the author seem intent upon tying up every last string so everything can be shoved neatly into the little package. Still in all, it is a book worth savoring.
    • 4/5
      I really liked this book. I found it hard to put down. The characters were believeable and likeable. The story was compelling. However, I often felt like some of the details were off -- how can someone have a birthday at the end of August if her mom was telling her husband she was pregnant in the summer -- either she was REALLY pregnant when the news came out, or she was pregnant for a year? Little things like that distracted me. Overall an enjoyable read though.
    • 4/5
      Not having read Barry's previous novel, The Lace reader, I didn't know what to expect from The Map of True Places. What I found was a book that hooked me from the start and kept my interest until the last page. When Zee Finch, a Boston psychotherapist, learns that her patient Lilly Braedon has jumped off the Tobin Bridge into the Mystic River below, she is heartsick. The suicide of her patient brought back all the feelings of guilt she experienced when her bipolar mother commit suicide years ago. She felt in both case as if she could have done more second guess herself over her actions.Zee returns to Salem for the funeral and while she is there she visits her father. She finds him in bad shape; his live in love has left and his Parkinson's disease has advanced a lot since she last saw him. Zee takes a leave of absence from her practice with Dr. Liz Mattei to care for her father and in the process comes to some realizations in her life. Zee had always done what was expected of her but now Zee questions what she really wants out of life and tries to find her true place in the world; not an easy process. It involves a lot of introspection and re examination of the sometimes painful past. Barry tells the story in different time frames, going back and forth from the past to the present, slowly giving the reader more layers of the back story of her parents relationships, her mother's illness and fairy tale writings. A lot of the present day story involves her father's disease and how she deals with it. I found this part of the book very realistic. One of the things I enjoyed the most about the book was the setting so aptly described by Barry that I felt as if I were walking the streets of Salem along with Zee. Barry did a wonderful job of fleshing out all the characters in the story and weaving all the plot threads together while still managing to throw in a few twists along the way. I definitely would recommend the book and plan to read The Lace Reader in the near future.Disclosure: a review copy of the book was provided by William Morrow through LibraryThing's early reviewers program.
    • 3/5
      I so much wanted to love this book, since her first novel, The Lace Reader, was one of my favorite novels. It's set in Salem, MA, so I saved it for our family vacation to Cape Cod. The book had an interesting plot, but I found the characters a bit flat. Good plot, though and still a fun 'beach read'.
    • 5/5
      Hepzibah Thompson Finch (aka Zee) was into her profession of therapy for five years when it happened. Her patient committed suicide. Jumped from abridge into the river. Someone tried to stop her but was too late. Zee, engaged to a very upscale guy named Michael, crumbled. She was convinced that the woman didn't take her own life, she was pushed to it. She had a male friend named Adam which whom she was having an affair and who had abused her many times. Zee thinks it was his fault.The issue haunts Zee through the defining moments of her life: her father, a renowned Hawthorne scholar is in the latter years of Parkinson's, regressing to Alzheimers. Finch has tossed his boyfriend out of the house for some unknown reasons and won't see him. Zee's mother committed suicide when she was 8 and Zee has always known there was more than she was told about the incident. Her mother wrote True Love stories and had always searched for true love for herself. Was Zee meant to end up just like her? Never finding "The One", but looking until she gives up in despair? While all this is happening, Zee discovers many things about herself, her family and her life. One of the more important is that she meets a man named Hawk who seems destined to make her happy if, in fact, she can ever be. But she ruins that as well. Then she comes face-to-face with Adam. Can Zee save herself? Her family? In Brunonia Berry's second wonderful novel of the Salem area she sure tries to. Succeeding in everything is something else entirely and you must go along with Zee on her chosen paths to see just how strong a woman she can be. An excellent summer read!
    • 4/5
      Zee Finch is a young psychotherapist who is thrown into turmoil when a patient of hers commits suicide. Zee struggles with guilt and is left to wonder if she has crossed the line in treatment and if she could have prevented the death. At the same time, her patient's suicide brings up unresolved feelings and memories of her own mother's suicide when Zee was a child. Other plot threads include Zee's taking time off from her practice, moving home to Salem, MA to care for her father, his rapidly deteriorating health and the breakdown of his relationship with his partner and family secrets. Hawk, a handyman, comes into Zee's life with a warning that he "is not what he seems to be." Through the course of the book, Zee struggles to find a way to develop her own life and take the time to face her own issues after so many years of trying to please and/or care for others. This book was Library Thing Early Reviewers copy. It was a good read with many emotions that rang true. Issues of mental health, domestic abuse and aging were thought-provoking, bringing to mind "what would you do in this situation." Without giving away the ending, I did think that the plot involving Roy was "over the top." I was disappointed that the author felt the story needed that aspect of the story.
    • 5/5
      This a another moving yet mysterious tale from Brunonia Barry, who returns to Salem and some familiar characters in this wonderful novel. I loved Zee, a therapist whose life was shaped by her own mother's suicide. When she returns to her childhood home to care for her father, a rapidly deteriorating Parkinson's patient, she is forced to assess her life and her understanding of herself and others. The underlying mysteries are not difficult to unravel, but it is in finding some level of truth that Zee also finds herself. Though this story was not as dark as The Lace Reader, it was no less emotionally compelling. Definitely a must read!
    • 5/5
      I want to live in a Brunonia Barry novel. She is amazing at creating a sense of place in her novels, and while Salem is less of a character in its own right in The Map of True Places than it was in The Lace Reader, it is still an integral part of the story.Zee, a successful therapist in Boston, returns to Salem to care for her ailing father and to take a little breather from work in the wake of the suicide of one of her patients. Once she arrives, she finds her father, once a leading Hawthorne scholar, living alone across from the House of Seven Gables, having kicked out Melville, his longtime partner. While trying to reconcile her father with Melville, once the love of his life, she drags up quite a bit about both men’s pasts and the past of her late mother. Getting over her mother’s suicide, which Zee witnessed, has been a lifelong journey for Zee, one that has not been helped by the similarities between her mother and the patient Zee so recently lost.Barry’s gift for layering stories is clear as she melts the pasts of so many characters together into one cohesive narrative. Some of the connections between the characters run much deeper than they seem, and even though the same events are looked at or played out multiple times, there is a new revelation with every telling and an ending that left be both in awe and misty-eyed.There are a few characters from The Lace Reader that make appearances in The Map of True Places, and there is talk of the work done on Yellow Dog Island. All of this is either fully explained or unimportant to this story. Reading the former is not a prerequisite for reading the latter.Book source: ARC received from the publisher, William Morris, through the LibraryThing Early Reviewers Program.
    • 5/5
      Brunonia Barry of ‘The Lace Reader’ fame returns with a new fiction offering set in Salem, ‘The Map of True Places.’ And it fittingly begins with the famous Melville quote: “It is not down in any map; true places never are.” This is a novel of true places and those who seek them.Psychologist Zee Finch returns to Salem to care for her ailing father, who is in the latter stages of Parkinson’s. Her life in Boston hasn’t been going well; her fiancé has broken their engagement and she has lost a patient to suicide. Zee is indeed in need of a map, but before she can plan a future she must in true fictive fashion explore her own past. And that proves to be a complicated journey. Barry handles the various threads of the novel quite ably. Zee’s father, Finch, and his lover Melville, Finch’s healthcare provider Jessina, Maureen, Zee’s story teller mother, and Hawk, her new romantic interest, are each complex and well-developed characters who ring true. What was the relationship between Finch, Maureen, and Melville? Each character seems to view it differently. Did Lilly, Zee’s patient, actually commit suicide? How is Zee to find her way through the differing perspectives each character offers? As Finch loses his memory to dementia and Hawk teaches her celestial navigation, Zee must chart a path of her own through the past.Barry’s novel is addictive reading. It is at once entertaining and thought provoking.
    • 4/5
      I loved this book! The story of Zee Finch and her family history was very compelling and fascinating. The characters are interesting and well defined with very few exceptions. The history and description of the setting is well done and adds much to the story itself. I also enjoyed how the author brought in aspects of her previous novel, The Lace Reader, that added to this story but could be understood without having read the previous novel. This is a wonderfully written book that is very hard to put down.
    • 4/5
      Brunonia Barry's "The Map of True Places" was hard to put down once I cracked the cover. Her characters are real, warts and all. I enjoyed how Barry wove the past, present and imagined together so that they paralleled one another (with a few interesting twists thrown in for good measure).
    • 4/5
      I received an advance copy of this book from the publisher.Zee is working as a psychotherapist when one of her patients commits suicide. The tragedy brings up all kinds of issues for Zee and forces her to confront her past. In the middle of trying to work through the tragedy, Zee must return home to Salem to care for her father who is suffering from late stage Parkinson's. During her time in Salem, Zee tries to come to terms with the past and the suicide of her own mother when she was a young girl. As family secrets come to light and Zee learns to open her heart, another tragedy may be just around the corner.THE MAP OF TRUE PLACES is filled with references to celestial navigation and it is a very effective device. Coupling that with the setting in Salem, Massachusetts was particularly good. Zee is a deeply flawed person trying to make sense of her tragic past and how it shaped her present. This struggle against the backdrop of her caring for her ailing father is very moving. Barry does an excellent job revealing the flaws of all the characters while keeping them human and relatable. The celestial navigation methapor works so well as Zee tries to find her way back to herself. I found myself wanting to run out and learn about celestial navigation after reading this book.I really enjoyed MAP OF TRUE PLACES. I thought the characters were interesting and I loved Zee's story and the focus on how our past affects who we are and the choices that we make. The setting in Salem was perfect and very effective. The book has everything from buried family secrets to witches to Nathanial Hawthorne to pirates to the threat of violence. It covers a lot of ground. I have already decided to go back and read Barry's LACE READER since I enjoyed this one so much.BOTTOM LINE: Recommended. A great story of family secrets and letting go of the past with a terrific setting. You will want to go out sailing and navigate by the stars after reading this.
    • 3/5
      On the whole I enjoyed this story. I never felt fully immersed in it, the way I sometimes do with a book, but it was sufficiently interesting to keep my attention. I liked the coastal Massachusetts setting (I'd never actually realised that Salem was on the coast, for some reason...) and the interweaving of nautical navigational facts. Wasn't so keen on the insistence that human beings can't get through life without hours of therapy, though. Zee seemed to treat her own therapy sessions as though they were a regular, essential thing: like a car service or a dental check-up. And yet one of the messages of the book was that therapy doesn't always work and, indeed, the main character manages to work out her problems without the help of therapy in the end.
    • 5/5
      The setting is Salem, but the fact that not all is what it appears to be has nothing to do with witchcraft. Plain old human weakness of body and mind have caused Zee, a therapist, to question the choices she has made in her life. The author slowly draws us into Zee's life and the life of Zee's patient who has recently committed suicide. This is the first patient Zee has lost and her death brings back the painful memory of her mother's mental illness and eventual suicide. Her father's battle with a debilitating disease, and his need for her help, is just the excuse Zee needs to take a leave from her work. But trouble has followed Zee to Salem and she must deal with it if she is ever going to be able to move on with her life. This is a great summer read and would be a good choice for book groups.
    • 4/5
      "Only when one learns to determine his true location by looking at the stars will he be able to chart an accurate course to his final destination."I enjoy a book that can pull you in to the story in the first chapter. The Map Of True Places pulled me immediately. I am unsure what I thought this book would be about but it managed to take me along on it's wild and twisted journey. Barry included enough mystery to keep me interested through out.
    • 5/5
      This book was truly phenomenal and a real page-turner. The twists and turns that occurred left me muttering only one word as I closed the book after the last page: "wow." I would definitely say I recommend this book to others and I cannot wait to read The Lace Reader, also by Brunonia Barry. I hope that it is even half as good as the Map of True Places.
    • 5/5
      A wonderful second novel from Brunonia Barry. It is the story of Zee Finch, a woman who, at age 12, lost her bipolar mother to suicide. When the book opens, she is hitching a ride from Boston, where she is a successful psychologist, to Salem to see her father who is now suffering from Parkinson's Disease and dementia. Zee is a troubled young woman who is extremely upset over the suicide of one of her patients, Lilly, who reminds her of her own mother's death. In her mind she feels guilt over both deaths, as though she should have done something more to help. She stays to take care of her father and to deal with events in her life that are overwhelming her and making her doubt herself as a therapist. She blames her broken engagement on herself for being so busy that she has little time for her fiance. She struggles to keep up with her father's care, as well as dealing with the guilt and pain of past and present relationships. Each character in this novel is extremely well drawn and I found myself turning pages quickly. I read "The Lace Reader" when it first came out and this book is even better in my opinion. The descriptions of the towns of Salem and other surrounding towns are so charming to me, having lived in this area all my life. This book is a winner all the way around. I loved it and recommend it highly. Thanks to the publisher, William Morrow/HarperCollins for sending me this advance review copy.
    • 4/5
      I'm a sucker for novels featuring locales I am familiar with so this book already had an edge. Also, I have enjoyed other books by Brunonia Barry. I enjoyed the story line and the way it was presented. Some of it did get a little tedious; however, the characters are likable and have some depth to them. Enjoyed the unexpected twists at the end.
    • 4/5
      Summary: Zee Finch has her life planned out. She is a successful psychologist and is engaged to the perfect catch. But her perfect life starts to unravel after the suicide of one of her patients. Zee travels to her father’s home in Salem to recoup after Lily’s death and finds that her father’s Parkinson’s disease has progressed much faster that he had let on. As she deals with these changes in her life, she starts to discover that maybe she needs a new plan.My Thoughts: I liked this book. It had some darkness to it, but I was interested from the beginning, and grew to like it the more I read. I thought that most of the characters were well written and interesting. The descriptions of Finch’s struggles with Parkinson’s was very well researched and described. Her knowledge of that disease was amazing.I enjoyed the several story lines, such as Lily’s suicide and Zee’s mother’s mysterious history. I loved Melville and perked right up when we followed his story. I also really liked Adam and he is the reason I was hooked for the second half of the book.My only problem with this book was the main character, Zee. I don’t think I liked her very much. Maybe I just wasn’t interested in her because it seemed like she wasn’t that interested in her life either. I know she was emotional about Lily and that she loved and cared for her father. But she was clearly depressed and therefore depressing. Some of this cleared up towards the middle of the book, and she became more likeable, but I guess my original opinion of her stuck.I like an ending that can wrap up the main ideas of a story AND give you a glimpse into the future of the characters….. good or bad. This story had that kind of ending, and lightened some of the darkness.
    • 4/5
      This is a story of Zee. A young woman who grew up in Salem, in a house with a past. Her mother died when Zee was young, and she grew up living with her father, and his lover. Life after the death of her mother, was easier, and more settled than life with her had ever been. Zee's mother suffered from bi-polar disorder, and the family suffered along with her. Zee grew up and became a psycho-therapist. She treated those who suffered as her mother did, and perhaps was more empathetic than others might have been. Perhaps too much so. The death of one of her patients, sent Zee into a downward spiral. One was was all the worse because her father was now ill as well. The story once again takes place in Salem, Massachusetts ...a place I love. We revisit people and places from the last book, [The Lace Reader], but this is in no way a sequel. It is a strong, solid, stand alone story of a Zee. A young woman who finally finds her true self. Recommended
    • 4/5
      Enjoyed this more than her previous book Lace Reader. Takes places in Salem, MA, so she is a local author for me. Story includes caring for ailing parent, career decisions, marraige choices. Touches on a little bit of everything. Moves along well with likable characters.
    • 5/5
      Mystic sea ports.Hawthorne.Witches.Civil Liberties.Honestly, what is there not to love about Salem, MA?For Zee Finch, there’s more to add under the “not” column. A fading father, a memory of a mother gone, a harbor town that simply holds too many reminders of a less than stellar youth.So, it is with heavy baggage and much regret that she finds herself dislodged from far away Boston and set on a rip current back to her homeland. It is the ghost of family past coupled with a much more recent case gone horribly wrong that upends her beautiful engagement and career in the big city where her star is rising as an up and coming clinical psychotherapist.Parkinson’s has settled in with her father, resulting in the disintegration of his longtime relationship with dear friend and lover, Melville. Distraught and dragged down by the sudden need for her character change from distant daughter to constant caregiver, Zee’s entire world is upended and sent straight back to a fun-house version of her youth. She is forced to come face to face with the psychology and mythology of her past, the town’s past and the much more recent past of her troubled client.The silver lining to the dark storm cloud, is a mysterious man working on one of the ships in the port. Sunny and carefree in the way only old world sailors can be, Hawk is the picture of everything Zee has ever needed, capable of teaching her not only to read the stars but also to follow her heart. Of course, every storm cloud’s silver lining eventually sees another rainy day and not all parties are what they initially appear to be.Barry’s book came to me this past summer and it’s taken me entirely too long to read it. I’m kicking myself, now, for leaving it for so long. Of course, sometimes books have a way of waiting for the best time to be read. October, Salem or Atlanta, tends to be a great time for curling up with a good book. Of course, adding the mystery of an old sea yarn, never hurt a good Autumn-in-New-England read either.(Try turning on some Barefoot Truth or Great Big Sea while you’re reading and I promise you won’t be disappointed.)Growing up very close to Salem, hoping that every Neo-Crucible or Deliverance Dane anecdote will capture the town’s true awesomeness, I’m always disappointed.Until now.Barry gets it and here’s why: She tells stories like a New Englander. She writes about town drama and the colors of houses on the wharf, not, as southerners and midwesterners do, for poetic effect, but because these things have significance to ten generations looking back and it’s just a matter of fact. A north shore boatman retells a story because people have to know that “this happened” or because they should know “what went on here” as opposed to someone chatting about meandering minutia, whiling away of the hours in a hot southern sun, under parasols, drinking sweet tea.In True Places, Barry tells a sea story and a T-story, weaving past and present with a classic Yankee attention to “only the good stuff”. I’m about halfway into her first book, The Lace Reader, and can attest to the same being said through both works. This storyteller gets two very enthusiastic thumbs up from a fairly-hard to please northerner.
    • 4/5
      Great story! I loved the fact that character's from The Lace Reader popped up in this book. Family drama with a twist. I can't wait for Ms. Barry's next one.
    • 3/5
      The Map of True Places by Brononia Barry is a book about so many dysfunctional people and horrid events that the book really has nothing redeeming. It's about 2 successful suicides, 1 attempted suicide, false paternity, abuse, rape, psychiatrists, witches, drug use, etc. I did read the entire thing as I kept waiting for something good to happen!
    • 4/5
      This is the first time that I have read a book by Brunonia Barry. The Map of True Places started off with a great setting, the fascinating historic city of Salem. Also the author had the story of a father with Parkinson's disease that was turning into dementia. Both of those diseases were well researched and represented very carefully. Zee Finch, the daughter in this story, has a background of having a mother who had bipolar disorder and had committed suicide when Zee was young. The mother was wrapped up in a fantasy world that she tried to write in a book. Her mother was very out of touch with reality. Zee had stopped stealing boats and was working under a respected psychotherapist. OK that was a big jump! Zee took to stealing boats and leaving them in places not where they were originally. Is this a call for help, a call for an active parent to console and comfort her because she did not really have a mother, even when she was living? She was also engaged to be married. But one of the Zee's patients commits suicide and she also finds out that her father's mental health has deteriorated very much. Zee's world became too much for her. She lost her bearings. She returned to Salem to see her father but also begins to remember what her mother was like and she uncovers many family secrets. Some I liked reading about her father's lover, also how difficult it is to be a caretaker for someone with severe problems. But the element of fantasy and various other strings of the story started to confuse me at the end. So I loved most of the book but not all of it. I think the author attempted a little bit too much in one book but the main parts of the story still keep your interest.