The Creator's Map

by Emilio Calderon Narrated by Tony Chiroldes

Overview

As Fascism rises and falls, a Spanish architect, a young librarian, and an Italian prince are entangled in a web of passion and espionage.



Rome, 1952. Like all of Europe, Spanish architect José María struggles to recover from the chaos of the past fifteen years. Then one day he learns about the mysterious death by decapitation of an old acquaintance. Memories rush back-and the story moves back in time to 1937.



Fascism is on the rise. José and his wife Montse wait out the Spanish Civil War at the Spanish Academy in Rome. When they sell an ancient text found in the Academy's forgotten archive, they become embroiled in a Nazi plot to collect mystical artifacts for the practice of the black arts. Most coveted by the Führer himself: The Creator's Map, a document showing the power centers of the universe, said to be traced by God's own hand.



Enter a sinister Italian prince with dark plans of his own and the stage is set for a tale of political intrigue, romantic entanglements, deceit, and divided loyalties, rich with historical detail and 1940s noir suspense.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly

A Nazi quest for an ancient map pinpointing the source of black magic, Vatican spies and Spanish Civil War refugees in 1930s Rome fail to coalesce and pay off in Calderón's intriguing debut. In late 1937, Jose Maria Hurtado de Mendoza, an apolitical Spanish architectural student at Rome's Spanish Academy, is recruited by a mysterious antifascist organization called Smith (all its agents are "Smith") to help search for the mystical Creator's Map, sought by the Nazis to aid in evildoing. He soon finds himself part of a love triangle with Montse, a beautiful young Spanish refugee, and Prince Junio Valerio Cima Vivarini, a Venetian paleographer secretly working with the SS. While Jose attempts to survive in fascist Italy and Germany, where he goes to work as an architect of bunkers and fortifications, the map's mystical qualities are relegated to the background. An ingenious denouement, set in 1952 and narrated in epistolary fashion by one character from beyond the grave, doesn't make up for the fact that Jose remains a passive and oftentimes peripheral figure in his own less than dramatic story. (July)

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From the Publisher

" An intricately plotted, compelling read that vividly conjures up the Rome of World War II."
Juan G=mez-Jurado, author of God's Spy

" A narrative that combines the historical novel and the espionage thriller . . . a story whose stylistic and thematic beauty surpasses the expectations of even the most demanding of readers . . . a stunning work of fiction."
ABC (Spain)

Product Details

BN ID:	2940169555967
Publisher:	HighBridge Company
Publication date:	07/17/2008
Edition description:	Unabridged

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