Author Chat With Amy Zhang (The Cartographers), Plus Giveaway! ~ US Only!

Today we are very excited to share an interview with Amy Zhang (The Cartographers)!

Read on to learn more about her, her book, and a giveaway!

Meet the Author: Amy Zhang

Amy Zhang was born in China and moved to the United States when she was a young girl. She grew up in Wisconsin and recently graduated from college. She is the author of Falling into Place and This is Where the World Ends, and she currently lives in Brooklyn, New York.

About the Book: The Cartographers

Struggling to balance the expectations of her immigrant mother with her own deep ambivalence about her place in the world, seventeen-year-old Ocean Sun takes her savings and goes off the grid. A haunting and romantic novel about family, friendship, philosophy, fitting in, and love from Amy Zhang, the acclaimed author of Falling into Placeand This Is Where the World Ends.

Ocean Sun has always felt an enormous pressure to succeed. After struggling with depression during her senior year of high school, Ocean moves to New York City, where she has been accepted at a prestigious university. But Ocean feels so emotionally raw and unmoored (and uncertain about what is real and what is not) that she decides to defer and live off her savings until she can get herself together. She also decides not to tell her mother (whom she loves very much but doesn’t want to disappoint) that she is deferring—at least until she absolutely must.

In New York, Ocean moves into an apartment with Georgie and Tashya, two strangers who soon become friends, and gets a job tutoring. She also meets a boy—Constantine Brave (a name that makes her laugh)—late one night on the subway. Constant is a fellow student and a graffiti artist, and Constant and Ocean soon start corresponding via Google Docs—they discuss physics, philosophy, art, literature, and love. But everything falls apart when Ocean goes home for Thanksgiving, Constant reveals his true character, Georgie and Tashya break up, and the police get involved.

Ocean, Constant, Georgie, and Tashya are all cartographers—mapping out their futures, their dreams, and their paths toward adulthood in this stunning and heartbreaking novel about finding the strength to control your own destiny. For fans of Nina LaCour’sWe Are Okay and Daniel Nayeri’s Everything Sad Is Untrue.

Amazon

~Author Chat~

YABC: Who is your favorite character in the book?

Probably Georgie—I gave her plenty of my own quirks!

YABC: How do you know when a book is finished?

What’s the quote? “A book is never finished, only abandoned.” The truth is by the end of the editing process you’ve probably reread the manuscript twenty or thirty times, so there comes a point where you have to hand it off.

YABC: What research did you do to write this book?

A lot of this book came from my undergrad time in philosophy and poetics, so there are a lot of references to texts like Thomas Nagel’s “What Is It Like To Be a Bat?” and Wittgenstein’s Philosophical Investigations.

YABC:  What word do you have trouble overusing?

Nonetheless! I tried to use “nonetheless” twenty-four times in an earlier draft. I overuse “terrible” too.

YABC:   What is your favorite writing space?

My partner and I switch desks and offices every few months to keep things fresh! I love both spaces. One desk looks over all the historic buildings downtown, and the other looks over a garden with a waterfall.

YABC: How do you plan to celebrate the launch of your book?

We are having a little party at the best little bar in Seattle, Jarrbar! It’s a really wonderful, cozy space right by the Market.

YABC: What hobbies do you enjoy?

I love long walks and ceramics. Both are very sympathetic spaces to think through a long plot.

YABC:   What do you do when you procrastinate?

Happy hour, small plates, drinks with brine, nights with friends!

YABC: What kind of animal would your main character be and why?

I’d love to do a city rat book someday. Imagine what they see on the daily!

YABC: What other age group would you consider writing for?

I’m trying to bridge over into literary fiction right now. It feels very natural for me to write for my peers I think! So a book set in high school while I was in high school, a book wandering aimlessly in Brooklyn while I was bopping around, and now I’m doing my mid-twenties book.

YABC:   What’s up next for you?

I’m working on a book about talking dogs, romantic obsession, and animal ethics.

Title: The Cartographers

Author: Amy Zhang

Release Date: 1/31/2023

Publisher: Greenwillow Books

ISBN-10: 0062383078

ISBN-13: 978-0062383075

Genre: YA

Age Range: 14-17

~ Giveaway Details ~

One (1) winner will receive a copy of The Cartographers (Amy Zhang) ~US Only!

*Click the Rafflecopter link below to enter the giveaway*

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