The Cartographer of Sands

Traveling across the landscapes of California, two brothers—a recent parolee and a Berkeley professor—go in search of their teenage sister who has vanished, looking for the reasons why she left home. High in the hills of Berkeley, California, a father summons his two sons, Leonardo, a biology professor, and Gabriel, a recent parolee, and tasks them with locating their seventeen-year-old sister, Lenore, who has vanished, leaving a two-word note that simply reads: I’m okay. The meeting is scored by furious rehearsing from the downstairs conservatory. Peoria, the family matriarch, a world-class pianist with a tenuous grip on reality, is preparing for an important concert engagement. The brothers’ quests carry them in opposite directions—one northward to the Oregon border, the other southward to the Mexican border—as they search the length of California not just for their sister but for the reasons why she left home, reasons that will lead them into the heart of their mysterious family vocation of powerful healers. In lyrical and precise prose, Buchholz richly conjures the landscapes of the West, weaving touches of magical realism and deft humor in a poignant and atmospheric exploration of family, magic, and the meaning of connection.