Pocket Atlas of Remote Islands, by Judith Schalansky

Did you ever see a book and be all like "This would be such a good present. If only I was friends with the sort of person it would be a good present for!" Well, this is that sort of book.

Judith Scalansky picks 50 extremely remote islands, tells us where they are on a map and how far away they are from other places, their populations and timelines and that sort of thing, and then writes a small piece of creative non-fiction about each one. That's it. That's the whole deal right there.

And yet... and yet it's a gorgeous, wistful, entrancing book. Partly it's because the writing is so good, exotic and lyrical without ever becoming over-wrought or flowery. Partly it's because the islands themselves are so flippin' interesting, and distinct from one another, so each little tale is like nothing you've read elsewhere. The first comparison for me would be Italo Calvino's Invisible Cities: each entry is a thought-provoking and beguiling vignette, but where Invisible Cities is towering high-concept and occasional philosophising, the stories in Pocket Atlas... have a cold subtlety that I very much care for.   

But mostly it's just because it all fits together so neatly. The weird, interesting little stories fit. The neat little maps fit. The well-balanced presentation and binding all fits. Even the sub-title: "Fifty Islands I have not visited and never will," fits.