A Map of the World
1994 novel by Jane Hamilton
A Map of the World (1994) is a novel by Jane Hamilton. It was the Oprah's Book Club selection for December 1999. It was made into a movie released in 1999 starring Sigourney Weaver, Julianne Moore, David Strathairn, Chloë Sevigny, Louise Fletcher and Marc Donato with a soundtrack by Pat Metheny.
Plot summary
The book is concerned with how one seemingly inconsequential moment can alter lives forever. Alice Goodwin, mother of two, school nurse and wife of an aspiring dairy farmer in Wisconsin, is getting ready to take her two daughters and her best friend Theresa's two little girls to their farm pond to swim. When she goes upstairs to find her bathing suit, Lizzy, Theresa's 2-year-old, slips away to the pond and drowns. Alice is consumed with guilt while her husband Howard silently distracts himself with the hard work of running their farm. Although Alice had never been entirely comfortable living in their small town, and the townspeople had never been fully accepting of Alice and Howard, who were viewed as hippies trying their hand at farming, she and Howard found their farm to be a comforting refuge. With the drowning, however, the townspeople sharpen their disapproval of Alice which then encourages a woman, whom Alice reprimanded for constantly bringing her sick son to school, to accuse Alice of molesting her child. Several other mothers then also come forward with tales of Alice's "abuse".
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “A Map of the World” as 1994 novel by Jane Hamilton. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the arts & letters register because the source frames it as 1994 novel by Jane Hamilton. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Object files, edition statements, performance records and contemporary criticism preserve different stages of the work’s history. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 31, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4658123. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1994 and 1999.
Rights, attribution and provenance may remain disputed even when a general reference summary presents a stable account. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.
- Identifying works and editions
- Tracing reception history
- Finding collection records
The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “A Map of the World”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow A Map of the World primary sources, A Map of the World archive and World research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “A Map of the World”?
- Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?
- Where is authorship, date or provenance documented?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “A Map of the World” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.