A repertoire of geopolitical anomalies that have rarely had a place in history or left a mark in geography: disrupted republics, ephemeral kingdoms, utopian enterprises, border absurdities, lost or never born islands, unlikely cities. From Gasolinopolis to Mont Blanc, but also from Halfwell to Pheasant Island, from Hôtel Belvédère to Gigha Island, from Chevsuri to Buganda, from Inaccessible Island to Zero Island.

Charts are ambiguous just enough to confound what is right and what is wrong – and let the reader decide if analyze or do without them – as after all, we know that when it comes to outdoing fiction, nothing beats fact.

The Atlas consists of one hundred double-page charts. The left-hand page features the chart’s title, its geographical coordinates, its location on the map and its story; the right-hand page features the chart’s cartographic details created by the author himself borrowing from a variety of sources. 

A guide on how to get to the places described, a bibliography and an index of geographical names round out the book.

This Atlas was created out of a sincere desire for redressing the balance from architects, surveyors, astronauts, programmers, despots and tyrants who insist on favouring the concept of space – or, even worse, cyberspace – over that of place. 

The author’s incurable illness is, in fact, recognised by science under the name “topophilia”, i.e. love of place.