Review: The Map of True Places by Brunonia Barry

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 committed suicide years ago. She felt in both case as if she could have done more, second guessing herself over her actions.

Leaving her fiance back in Boston, Zee returns to Salem for Lilly's 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 about 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' troubled 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. Having family members with Alzheimers, 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. 4****

Disclosure: a review copy of the book was provided by William Morrow through LibraryThing's early reviewers program.