The Atlas of Misconceptions

We are told that a map is a perfect thing. An objective truth. This book is a chronicle of the beautiful, necessary lies we tell ourselves to navigate the world.

The Atlas of Misconceptions is not a history of good maps, but a journey through the profound beauty of getting it wrong. It is an exploration of the ghost islands that haunted our seas, the fictional continents that lured explorers to their doom, and the purposeful blank spaces that were an admission of our own magnificent ignorance.

But the real maps are the ones we carry inside us: the flawed atlas of our own memories, the unseen coastlines of scent and feeling, and the invisible borders we draw in our own hearts. This book explores the cartography of a childhood memory, the straight-line violence of a border drawn in ink, and the quiet comfort of a street that exists only on paper.

In an age when a blue dot on a screen tells us exactly where we are, this collection of essays is a quiet testament to the beautiful, unending uncertainty of the unknown. It is for anyone who has ever felt the strange relief of being lost, and who understands that the most honest maps are the ones that do not pretend to be true.