E.L. Doctorow authored Ragtime, a historical novel, and it was published in 1975 . Set in the early 20th century, the story weaves together the lives of fictional and historical figures, capturing the spirit of an era marked by rapid social and cultural changes.The narrative follows three primary storylines that converge throughout the novel. The first revolves around an upper-class white family living in New Rochelle, New York. The family consists of the Father, Mother, and their Younger Brother. One...
Zadie Smith authored Intimations , which was published in 2020 amidst the global COVID-19 pandemic. The book reflects on the unprecedented times and offers Smith’s observations and reflections on various aspects of life during this period. The essays in “Intimations” touch on a range of topics, including the impact of the pandemic, racial injustice, social inequality, and the role of art in times of crisis. Smith explores the ways in which the pandemic has exposed and exacerbated existing societal issues,...
Brazilian author Paulo Coelho wrote The Alchemist to make himself a legend. Just my guess. We follow an Andalusian shepherd named Santiago who embarks on a quest to discover his personal legend. Or his ultimate purpose or destiny in life. Whatever, right? Santiago’s journey takes him from his homeland in Spain to the Egyptian desert in search of a hidden treasure. Along the way, he encounters a series of characters who serve as mentors and guides. Melchizedek, the king of...
Rasselas, the fourth son of the King of Abyssinia (modern-day Ethiopia), is shut up in a beautiful valley called The Happy Valley, “till the order of succession should call him to the throne”. Rasselas enlists the help of an artist who is also known as an engineer to help with his escape from the Valley by plunging out through the air, though they are unsuccessful in this attempt. Rasselas grows weary of the factitious entertainments of the place and, after...
The Silmarillion is the tale of the creation of the world. In the First Age, is the ancient drama to which the characters in The Lord of the Rings look back and in whose events some of them, such as Elrond and Galadriel, took part. The three Silmarils were jewels created by Fëanor, the most gifted of the Elves. Within them was imprisoned the Light of the Two Trees of Valinor before the Trees themselves were destroyed by Morgoth, the...
Known to millions as the preeminent swashbuckler of the silver screen, Errol Flynn was a complex man who lived a life far more adventurous than any of his films. In My Wicked, Wicked Ways , Flynn reveals himself to be a self-aware and cosmopolitan devotee of excitement and pleasure. With gusto, he recalls his years as a soldier of fortune in the South Seas, his trip to war-torn Spain, his battles in Hollywood with studio honchos (Jack Warner was a...
The novel follows Professor Jack Gladney, who teaches Hitler studies at a small liberal arts college in rural New York. He lives there with his fourth wife Babette and their blended family. Jack is obsessed with avoiding death and stockpiles iodine tablets in case of a chemical spill from a nearby plant. One day while shopping at the local mall with his family, a strange toxic cloud appears and they have to evacuate. This event sparks an existential crisis in...
With a career that spanned more than half a century, William Trevor is regarded as one of the best anglophone writers. Now, in William Trevor’s Last Stories , the master storyteller delivers ten exquisitely rendered tales. Nine have never been published in book form before. The stories illuminate the human condition. Subtle yet powerful, Trevor gives us insights into the lives of ordinary people. We encounter a tutor and his pupil, whose lives are thrown into turmoil when they meet...
Year of the Monkey is a collection of reality-blended fictional picaresque essays that only Patti Smith can write. Following a run of New Year’s concerts at San Francisco’s legendary Fillmore, Patti Smith finds herself tramping the coast of Santa Cruz, about to embark on a year of solitary wandering. Unfettered by logic or time, she draws us into her private wonderland, in which she debates intellectual grifters and spars with the likes of a postmodern Cheshire Cat. Then, in February...
Humboldt’s Gift , which Saul Bellow initially intended to be a short story, is a roman à clef about Bellow’s friendship with the poet Delmore Schwartz. It explores the changing relationship between art and power in a materialist America. This theme is addressed through the contrasting careers of two writers, Von Humboldt Fleisher (to some degree a version of Schwartz) and his protégé Charlie Citrine (to some degree a version of Bellow himself). Fleisher yearns to lift American society through...
In A Swim in a Pond in the Rain, Saunders shares a version of his writing class with us, offering some of what he and his students have discovered together over the years. Paired with iconic short stories by Chekhov, Turgenev, Tolstoy, and Gogol, the seven essays in this book are intended for anyone interested in how fiction works and why it’s more relevant than ever in these turbulent times. In the introduction of A Swim in a Pond in...
Doctor Friendly has just died, but he moves “out of blackest sleep” to find himself surrounded by doctors and on the deathbed of a man in whose body he is imprisoned. After weeks of improving in the hospital, he is sent home to his affable, melting-pot, primary-colors existence in suburban America. As Friendly breaks up with his lovers in a prelude to seducing them and mangles his patients before he sends them home, his life races backward toward the one...
Design for the Real World by Victor Papanek is a classic anyone involved in design can benefit from. In this edition, Victor Papanek examines the attempts by designers to combat the tawdry, the unsafe, and the frivolous. He provides a blueprint for sensible, responsible, eco-friendly design in this world which is deficient in resources and energy. PART ONE: HOW IT IS WHAT IS DESIGN? A definition of the function complex PHYLOGENICIDE: A history of the industrial design profession THE MYTH...
As a sportswriter, Frank Bascombe makes his living studying people—men, mostly—who live entirely within themselves. This is a condition that Frank himself aspires to. But at thirty-eight, he suffers from incurable dreaminess, occasional pounding of the heart, and the not-too-distant losses of a career, a son, and a marriage. In the course of the Easter week in which Ford’s moving novel transpires, Bascombe will end up losing the remnants of his familiar life, though with his spirits soaring. The Sportswriter...
Readers as diverse as TS Eliot and Lou Reed appreciated Delmore Schwartz’s story In Dreams Begin Responsibilities . Schwartz made his parents’ disastrous marriage the subject of his most famous short story, “In Dreams Begin Responsibilities”. The Partisan Review published the story in its first issue (1937). Schwartz’s first book is titled the same and was published in 1938 when Schwartz was only 25 years old. New York intellectual circles hailed the book, making the author a well-known figure in...
Killing Commendatore is a complex and introspective novel that combines elements of magical realism, metaphysics, and psychological exploration. Murakami creates a captivating and thought-provoking narrative that explores the depths of the human experience. As the narrative progresses, the protagonist undergoes a profound personal transformation. He faces his fears, confronts his past, and embarks on a journey of self-discovery and redemption. Throughout the novel, the protagonist is haunted by the disappearance of a young girl named Mariye. Mariye has a connection...
Cathedral is Raymond Carver’s third collection of stories and a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. It includes the canonical titular story about blindness and learning to enter the different world of another. These twelve stories mark a turning point in Carver’s work and overflow with the danger, excitement, and mystery. His eye is so clear, that it almost breaks your heart." Carver’s editor, Gordon Lish, was a great influence on how the stories turned out.
Waiting for the Barbarians is a novel by the South African-born writer J. M. Coetzee. First published in 1980, it was chosen by Penguin for its series Great Books of the 20th Century and won both the James Tait Black Memorial Prize and Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize for fiction. American composer Philip Glass has also written an opera of the same name based on the book which premiered in September 2005 at Theater Erfurt, Germany. The theme of colonial imposition...
La invención de Morel (1940) — translated as The Invention of Morel or Morel’s Invention — is a novel by Argentine writer Adolfo Bioy Casares. It was Bioy Casares’ breakthrough effort, for which he won the 1941 First Municipal Prize for Literature of the City of Buenos Aires. He considered it the true beginning of his literary career, despite being his seventh book. The first edition cover artist was Norah Borges (see below), sister of Bioy Casares’ lifelong friend, Jorge...
Fredrik Backman wrote A Man Called Ove in 2012. It tells the story of Ove, a grumpy and solitary old man who finds unexpected connections and purpose in life. Ove is a curmudgeonly and principled individual who adheres strictly to rules and routines. He is grieving the loss of his wife and feels out of place in the modern world. Ove’s life takes an unexpected turn when new neighbors, including a young family, move in next door. Through a series...
Flying to America, first published in 2007, presents all of Barthelme’s previously unpublished and uncollected short fiction. For both devotees and those new to Barthelme’s playful irreverence, erudition, and unmatched imagination, this unprecedented survey offers a rare and wonderful treat. One of the most influential and inventive writers of the twentieth century, Donald Barthelme wrote novels, short stories, parodies, plays, satires, fables, and essays that captured the good, the bad, but most of all the strange of America, but not...
In The Plains, Australian novelist Gerald Murnane explores how the landowning families of the plains have preserved a rich and distinctive culture. Obsessed with their habitat and history, they hire artisans, writers, and historians to record in minute detail every aspect of their lives, and the nature of their land. A young filmmaker arrives on the plains, hoping to make his contribution to the elaboration of this history. In a private library, he begins to take notes for a film...
William Boyd’s Love is Blind follows the life of Brodie Moncur, a young Scottish piano tuner with a remarkable talent for his craft. The novel explores themes of love, passion, and the complexities of human relationships.Brodie Moncur, working for an Edinburgh piano company, is sent to Paris to oversee the expansion of the company’s business. There, he meets Lika Blum, a talented Russian pianist with whom he falls deeply in love. However, Lika is already involved with a famous composer...
Gogol wrote “The Nose” in 1836. The satirical story is set in St. Petersburg, Russia. It follows the bizarre misadventures of Major Kovalyov and his missing nose. It is a surreal and humorous tale that explores themes of identity, social hierarchy, and absurdity. The story begins with Major Kovalyov waking up one morning to find that his nose has disappeared from his face. Shocked and bewildered, he searches frantically for his missing appendage but fails to find it. To his...
DeLillo’s Running Dog, originally published in 1978, follows Moll Robbins, a New York City journalist trailing the activities of an influential senator. In the process, she is dragged into the black market world of erotica and shady, infatuated men, where a cat-and-mouse chase for an erotic film rumored to “star” Adolph Hitler leads to trickery, maneuvering, and bloodshed. With streamlined prose and a thriller’s narrative pace, Running Dog is a bright star in the modern master’s early career.
With a murder at its heart, Roberto Bolano’s The Skating Rink is, among other things, a crime novel. Murder seems to have exerted a fascination for the endlessly talented Bolano, who in his last interview, according to The Observer, “declared, in all apparent seriousness, that what he would most like to have been was a homicide detective.” Set in the seaside town of Z, north of Barcelona, The Skating Rink is told in short, suspenseful chapters by three male narrators,...
Lincoln in the Bardo is a 2017 experimental novel by American writer George Saunders. It is Saunders’ first full-length novel. It was on The New York Times hardcover fiction bestseller for the week of March 5, 2017. The novel takes place during and after the death of Abraham Lincoln’s son William “Willie” Wallace Lincoln and deals with the president’s grief at his loss. The bulk of the novel takes place throughout a single evening. It is set in the bardo...
The essays in Impossible Owls go beyond simply chronicling some of the modern world’s most uncanny, unbelievable, and spectacular oddities. Researched for months and even years on end, they explore the interconnectedness of the globalized world, the consequences of history, the power of myth, and the ways people attempt to find meaning. He searches for tigers in India, and uncovers a multigenerational mystery involving an oil tycoon and his niece turned stepdaughter turned wife in the Oklahoma town where he...
Molloy is the first of three novels initially written in Paris between 1947 and 1950; this trio, which includes Malone Dies and The Unnamable, is collectively referred to as ‘The Trilogy’ or ‘the Beckett Trilogy.’ Beckett deliberately wrote all three books in French and then, aside from some collaborative work on Molloy with Patrick Bowles, served entirely as his own English-language translator; he did the same for most of his plays. As Paul Auster explains, “Beckett’s renderings of his own...
Riding Toward Everywhere delves into the history and culture of train hopping. Train hopping has its roots in the Great Depression era when many people hopped trains in search of work. Vollmann examines the allure of train hopping as a way to escape society’s constraints and experience a sense of freedom and adventure. He also explores the dangers and risks inherent in this lifestyle. Risks such as encounters with law enforcement, injuries, and the constant uncertainty of where the next...