About the Author

JENNY D. WILLIAMS has lived in the U.S., Uganda, and Germany. She holds an MFA from Brooklyn College and a BA from UC Berkeley. Her award-winning fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and illustrations have been published in The Sun Magazine, Vela, and Ethical Traveler, as well as several anthologies. A former Teachers & Writers Collaborative fellow and recipient of an Elizabeth George Foundation grant for emerging writers, she currently lives in Seattle with her husband and dog. The Atlas of Forgotten Places is her first novel

Reviews

"Gritty and intricately plotted...Williams's book paints the contours of the real-life conflict admirably, making the thrilling disappearance story relatable with nuanced characterizations and a wealth of strong subplots concerning reclaiming love, protecting family, and guarding hope for a new future when the present seems to be teetering on disaster." --Publishers Weekly "A complex and suspenseful tale with dozens of subplots, questioning loyalty and exploring forgiveness at the individual and societal levels." --Library Journal "Jenny D. Williams' Atlas of Forgotten Places is an extraordinary debut. Written with confidence and compassion, masterfully plotted, her characters drawn in swift, sure strokes--this was a book I could not put down." --Marisa Handler, Nautilus Award-winning author of Loyal to the Sky "Every page of The Atlas of Forgotten Places resonates with an intimate knowledge of life in 'Africa'...the impossible beauty of the landscape, the depths of sorrows carried by ordinary citizens, the miraculous melding of violence and personal grace. Jenny D. Williams has written that rare thing: a page-turning adventure story that simultaneously goes deep into the heart of what it is to be human and present." --Malla Nunn, award-winning screenwriter and author of A Beautiful Place to Die, Silent Valley, and Present Darkness "A young American woman gone missing in Africa, her German aunt forced to revisit her own past. From these elements, Jenny Williams has produced a riveting alchemy. In the vein of Paul Bowles and Robert Stone, The Atlas of Forgotten Places is part political thriller, part love story, always attuned to matters of the heart. It's a splendid debut." --Joshua Henkin, author of The World Without You, Matrimony, and Swimming Across the Hudson "I think Jenny Williams is a wonderfully gifted writer, who is at the beginning of a long and distinguished career." --Richard Bausch, author of Peace and Before, During, After, winner of the PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence, and a Guggenheim fellow "A beautiful, heartbreaking story of civil war, family secrets, lost love and found hope. Unforgettable." --Lian Dolan, Los Angeles Times bestselling author "The Atlas of Forgotten Places is a beautifully written, all-engulfing novel about our responsibility for each other and the faltering ways in which we try to help." --Erika Mailman, author of The Witch's Trinity "The Atlas of Forgotten Places is a thriller that sweeps the reader into intrigue, adventure, and mystery. In the tradition of socially influential writers, from Shakespeare to Graham Greene, Jenny Williams employs exciting fiction to convey truths about the political, corporate, and economic systems that impact us all." --John Perkins, New York Times bestselling author of The New Confessions of an Economic Hit Man and The Secret History of the American Empire "The narrative moves between Sabine and Rose in this suspenseful, compelling story set in a perilous region that many readers may have only heard about on the news." --Shelf Awareness "Williams has created characters the reader will bond with immediately and a narrative that grips the imagination with a vital quest across the boundaries of countries and of the heart...An extraordinary debut, written with a masterful sense of plot and pacing and a keen understanding of the thorny world of western intervention in the developing world...A stunning combination of intrigue and despair, redemption and love." --Washington Independent Review of Books