A Great Reckoning (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, #12)

by Louise Penny

“Oui. It’s because maps are magic.” If he didn’t have the Commander’s full attention before, he did now. Gamache lowered his tea to the table and stared. “Magic?”

“Yes. They’ve become so mundane we’ve forgotten that. They transport us from one place to another. They illuminate our universe. The first maps were of the heavens, you know. What the ancients could see. Where their gods lived. All cultures mapped the stars. But then they lowered their sights. To the world around them.”

“I found the world chaotic. Unsettling. But there was order in maps. And beauty. I love maps.”

“A place’s history is decided by its geography.