In this article, the author examines the notions of "loss" and "place" in relation to the mourning of one's personal and historical pasts. In doing so, the author draws upon the psychoanalytical writings of Julia Kristeva in an analysis of Jane Urquhart's 2005 novel "A Map of Glass"--a story about emplacement, displacement, and change. Here, the author explores three main topics. First, she discusses the Kristevan notion of lost nature as a lost historical past. She also examines the theme of the "mapping" of place in the novel, as well as the unlikely pedagogical relationship that develops between the two central protagonists, Sylvia and Jerome, as Sylvia reconstructs the stories of her ex-lover's life and her own, and Jerome becomes transformed in the "telling." The author hopes that this analysis will raise further questions about how the disappearance of place and the mourning of this loss "interrupt and transform how people live and learn together." (Contains 1 figure and 42 notes.)