New York
- 2013also Amsterdam
A boy who survives a museum bomb keeps a stolen painting, from New York to Amsterdam.
- 1992Brooklyn, New York
1920s Brooklyn: a Western Union hiring boss, a failing marriage and a city of strangers.
- 1991Greenwich Village, New York
1920s Greenwich Village: Tony’s wife Hildred falls for another woman, Vanya.
Monterey
- 1962Bixby Canyon, Monterey
Kerouac flees his fame to Ferlinghetti’s cabin in Bixby Canyon and cracks up.
- 1959Big Sur, Monterey
Perlès joins Henry Miller in his Big Sur cabin, twenty years after their Paris years.
- 1957Big Sur, Monterey
Miller’s fifteen years on the cliffs of Big Sur, with neighbours, children and visitors.
Napa Valley
- 1883Mount Saint Helena, Napa Valley
Stevenson’s honeymoon in a ruined silver mine above the Napa Valley.
Mississippi River
- 1884
1840s: Huck and the runaway slave Jim drift down the Mississippi on a raft.
Atlanta
- 1936Tara, Atlanta
1861–1873: Scarlett O’Hara, Tara and Atlanta through the Civil War and after.
Guadeloupe
- 2006Pointe-à-Pitre, Guadeloupe
Condé’s grandmother, an unlettered cook for a white Creole family, and her art.
- 1999Pointe-à-Pitre, Guadeloupe
1940s: Condé’s childhood in a proud, French-minded family of Pointe-à-Pitre.
- 1989Rivière au Sel, Guadeloupe
A stranger is found dead in a Guadeloupe village; at his wake, each mourner tells.
Martinique
- 1992Fort-de-France, Martinique
A shantytown above Fort-de-France, told by the woman who founded it, across 150 years.
- 1988Fort-de-France, Martinique
A storyteller dies mid-tale on the Savane, and the police question his listeners.
- 1950
1930s: a boy of the cane fields, raised by his grandmother, wins his way to school.
French Guiana
- 1969Îles du Salut, French Guiana
1930s: a convict of the bagne and his escapes, from Saint-Laurent to Devil’s Island.
Saint Lawrence
- 1889
1837: a family of the Saint Lawrence valley in the Patriotes’ rising against the British.
- 1545
1534–1542: Cartier sails up the Saint Lawrence to Stadacona and Hochelaga.
Yukon
- 1903Klondike, Yukon
A stolen dog pulls sleds in the Klondike gold rush, then joins a wolf pack.
Lac Saint-Jean
- 1913Péribonka, Lac Saint-Jean
A settler’s daughter at Péribonka, the forest, the winter and three men who want her.
Montreal
- 1945Saint-Henri, Montreal
A wartime waitress of Saint-Henri, Montreal’s poor district by the railway.
Mexico City
- 1843
Cuernavaca
- 1947
Tabasco
- 1940
The last priest of Tabasco, a drunkard with a child, runs from a police lieutenant.
Patagonia
- 1977
- 1905Isla de los Estados, Patagonia
1859: three keepers of a new lighthouse on Isla de los Estados face a band of wreckers.
- 1893
Havana
- 1958
- 1952Cojímar, Havana
An old fisherman of Cojímar fights a great marlin for three days in the Gulf Stream.
Haiti
- 1826
Amazon
- 1881
1852: a family drifts down the Amazon on a giant raft, from Iquitos to Belém.
Mato Grosso
- 1955
1935–1939: Lévi-Strauss among the Bororo, the Caduveo and the Nambikwara of Brazil.