The Geography of You and Me
-
- USD 8.99
-
- USD 8.99
Publisher Description
Lucy lives on the twenty-fourth floor. Owen lives in the basement. It's fitting, then, that they meet in the middle -- stuck between two floors of a New York City apartment building, on an elevator rendered useless by a citywide blackout. After they're rescued, Lucy and Owen spend the night wandering the darkened streets and marveling at the rare appearance of stars above Manhattan. But once the power is back, so is reality. Lucy soon moves abroad with her parents, while Owen heads out west with his father.
The brief time they spend together leaves a mark. And as their lives take them to Edinburgh and to San Francisco, to Prague and to Portland, Lucy and Owen stay in touch through postcards, occasional e-mails, and phone calls. But can they -- despite the odds -- find a way to reunite?
Smartly observed and wonderfully romantic, Jennifer E. Smith's new novel shows that the center of the world isn't necessarily a place. Sometimes, it can be a person.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Owen and Lucy meet when they get stuck in a New York City elevator during a widespread power outage. They quickly connect, spending an intimate (but chaste) night looking at stars from the roof of their building. When the electricity returns, so do real-life complications: Owen and his father, devastated by his mother's recent death, decide to drive west for a fresh start; meanwhile, Lucy moves to Scotland for her father's work. At first, they stay in touch Owen mails sweet postcards, and Lucy sends "slightly rambling" emails but they begin to doubt the strength of their connection ("How long could a single night really be expected to last?" Lucy wonders). Smith (This Is What Happy Looks Like) has written a sweet, moody story that can also be deeply heartbreaking, as when Owen and his father return to pack up their old house, only to find "the real measures of the lives here were now well and truly gone." There are plenty of romantic sigh-worthy moments, too, but it's Owen and Lucy's individual journeys that really hit home. Ages 12 up.
