A Crack in the Map

Author: Dalgetty, Alexina

Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945)

Published on 26 June 2026 by Cinnamon Press in the United Kingdom.

Told in multiple voices over the course of one-hundred and twenty-five years, A Crack in the Map *is the evocative and immersive story of a house and its residents. From an elegant and simple premise, three timelines are spun: the stories of Jake, Lydia, and Lucy as the nineteenth century gives way to the twentieth; of Miriam and Lenny, whose time in the house spans the mid-twentieth to early twenty-first century; and of Rosie and Steve in the present. Each is overlaid with the voice of the house itself, with its own perspective on life and death, shelter and material existence. Inventive, linguistically deft, pushing at boundaries of form and narrative, *A Crack in the Map can be read in a myriad of ways, giving readers a kaleidoscope of viewpoints. ‘A novel in pieces’, written in glistening, embodied prose, A Crack in the Map, explores what we mean by home and security, how place keeps memory, how stories are told and how ownership excludes young people from shelter.

A moving, enchanting and riveting second novel from a distinctive and innovative writer.