The Map Thief

"A map is not the territory. But when a map is the only document of the territory, it becomes the territory."Across Algeria, in archives and private collections and the back rooms of institutions that do not officially exist, there are maps. French colonial surveys, Ottoman charts, hand-drawn territorial records that predate both. Some are in the wrong hands. Belkacem Khelifi's job is to put them in the right ones. He is not a scholar, not an activist, not a spy. He is a cartographic conservator at the National Archives in Algiers — and he is also, quietly and methodically, the most prolific map thief in North Africa. A novel about borders, ownership, and the question of who has the right to the documents that define a country's shape. Read more