From the “most talented writer of his generation” (The New York Times), a lightning flash of a novel that is at once a gripping emotional drama and a brilliant examination of the devices, digital and literary, we use to store—or to erase—our memories.The narrator of Ben Lerner’s new novel has traveled to Providence, Rhode Island, where he is to conduct what will be the final published interview with Thomas, his ninety-year-old mentor and the father of his ...

From a National Book Award finalist, this hilarious and profound first novel captures the experience of the young American abroad while exploring the possibilities of art and authenticity in our time.Adam Gordon is a brilliant, if highly unreliable, young American poet on a prestigious fellowship in Madrid, struggling to establish his sense of self and his relationship to art. Instead of following the dictates of his fellowship, Adam’s “research” becomes a meditati...

**A NEW YORK TIMES, TIME, GQ, Vulture, and WASHINGTON POST TOP 10 BOOK of the YEARONE OF BARACK OBAMA'S FAVOURITE BOOKS OF THE YEARFinalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and the National Book Critics Circle AwardShortlisted for the Rathbones Folio PrizeWinner of the Hefner Heitz Kansas Book AwardFrom the award-winning author of 10:04 and Leaving the Atocha Station, a tender ...

Adam Gordon is a brilliant, if highly unreliable, young American poet on a prestigious fellowship in Madrid, struggling to establish his sense of self and his attitude towards art. Fuelled by strong coffee and self-prescribed tranquillizers, Adam's 'research' soon becomes a meditation on the possibility of authenticity, as he finds himself increasingly troubled by the uncrossable distance between himself and the world around him. It's not just his imperfect grasp of Spanish, but the underl...

“[One] of his best.” —Daniel Zalewski, The New Yorker“A masterpiece.” —Los Angeles TimesThe year is 1971, or perhaps 1972, in Salvador Allende’s Chile. Arturo B. is just one of a motley crew of young bohemians attending Juan Stein’s poetry workshop at the University of Concepción when a mysterious newcomer by the name of Alberto Ruiz-Tagle arrives. Though Alberto’s taciturn manner, patrician airs, and cold, distant poetry ...

Following the international buzz for his debut, Leaving the Atocha Station, comes 10:04, Ben Lerner's electric second novel that blends artistry and wit, intelligence and tenderness. A unique collision between art and life by an extraordinary young writer. For readers of Jeffrey Eugenides, Jonathan Lethem, Sheila Heti.Leaving the Atocha Station was hailed as "one of the truest (and funniest) novels...of his generation" (Lorin Stein, Ne...

A stunning collection of work from beloved poet John Ashbery, his first posthumous bookRenowned for his inventive mind, ambitious play with language, and dexterity with a wide range of tones and styles, John Ashbery has been a major artistic figure in the cultural life of our time. Parallel Movement of the Hands gathers unpublished, book-length projects and long poems written between 1993 and 2007, along with one (as yet) undated work, to showcase Ashbery'...

A moving poetic memoir about a family on the fringes of religion and society, this unforgettable story about a mother's destructive involvement with Christian fundamentalism pulls the curtain back on the darker side of American religious experience.Keith Waldrop's account of his mid-twentieth-century Midwestern upbringing opens a window on a uniquely American landscape of desolation and desire. Waldrop's mother, central to the book, was a devout Christian, consumed...

The A List edition of Ticknor, the first novel by Sheila Heti — featuring a new introduction by Ben Lerner, author of Leaving the Atocha Station.George Ticknor is trying to reconcile his own failure with the success of his boyhood friend, the famous American historian William Prescott. Ticknor's life has been reduced to a series of awkward meetings, failed dinner parties, and other misfortunes he is loath to own up to. Situated in the complicated and contradictory...

Novelist and poet Ben Lerner argues that our hatred of poetry is ultimately a sign of its continued relevance.Poetry. Perhaps Marianne Moore said it best: "I, too, dislike it." What other art takes its marginality as a given, and is so widely bemoaned even by its practitioners? Ben Lerner writes, "Many more people agree they hate poetry than can agree what poetry is. I, too, dislike it and have largely organized my life around it and do not experience that as a con...

A Schoolboy’s Diary brings together more than seventy of Robert Walser’s strange and wonderful stories, most never before available in English. Opening with a sequence from Walser’s first book, “Fritz Kocher’s Essays,” the complete classroom assignments of a fictional boy who has met a tragically early death, this selection ranges from sketches of uncomprehending editors, overly passionate readers, and dreamy artists to tales of devilish adultery, sexual encounters on a train, and...

Longlisted for the Griffin Poetry PrizeA New Yorker Essential ReadNamed a Best Book of the Year by The Washington Post, Vulture, NPR, Financial Times, The Telegraph, and Electric LiteratureA formally ambitious and intensely felt new volume from the author of 10:04 and The Topeka School.The Ligh...