A dazzling philosophical investigation of the challenge of living in the present, by a brilliant practitioner of the new essay.
In her third book, which continues to define the contours of the contemporary essay, Sarah Manguso confronts a...
In this rare glimpse into the life of Nobel laureate Patrick Modiano, the author takes up his pen to tell his personal story. He addresses his early years — shadowy times in postwar Paris that haunt his memory and have inspired his world-cherished...
Long before Oliver Sacks became a distinguished neurologist and bestselling writer, he was a small English boy fascinated by metals – also by chemical reactions (the louder and smellier the better), photography, squids and cuttlefish, H.G. Wells,...
“Half my life ago, I killed a girl.”
So begins Darin Strauss’ Half a Life, the true story of how one outing in his father’s Oldsmobile resulted in the death of a classmate and the beginning of a different, darker life for the author. We...
The first biography of the most influential writer of his generation, David Foster Wallace.
David Foster Wallace was the leading literary light of his era, a man who not only captivated readers with his prose but also mesmerized them with his...
In this exuberantly praised book — a collection of seven pieces on subjects ranging from television to tennis, from the Illinois State Fair to the films of David Lynch, from postmodern literary theory to the supposed fun of traveling aboard a...
Thomas Wentworth Higginson said of Julia Ward Howe’s Reminiscences, published in 1899, that the work might have been “spread out into three or four interesting octavos; but in her hurried grasp it is squeezed into one volume, where groups of...
Bill Clegg had a thriving business as a literary agent, representing a growing list of writers. He had a supportive partner, trusting colleagues, and loving friends when he walked away from his world and embarked on a two-month crack binge. He had...
Eleven charming, delicate sketches of diplomatic life in service of the crown.
After decades spent representing Britain around the globe, Antrobus has earned a shirtful of medals and the right to pass afternoons in his London club, musing over...