A New Map of Wonders: A Journey in Search of Modern Marvels by Caspar Henderson - review by Daisy Hildyard

Daisy Hildyard

Curator of Curiosities

A New Map of Wonders: A Journey in Search of Modern Marvels

By

Granta Books 371pp £20
 

At a music festival this summer, I noticed a group of people raising their phones in the air – reaching towards something. Everybody around them was watching a band on a stage a little way off, but this cluster had turned their backs to the music and were gazing, intently, somewhere beyond the boundary of the park. I looked out over my neighbour’s shoulder and saw a rainbow above the horizon.

We had all seen rainbows before, and this one was nothing special. Why were these people trying to capture it on their phones when they could have been watching a band they had paid to see? Perhaps they were interested in the science of the interaction between water and

Sign Up to our newsletter

Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.

RLF - March

A Mirror - Westend

Follow Literary Review on Twitter