A New York Times Book Review Editor’s ChoiceFinalist for the National Book Critics Circle AwardA Princeton professor-turned-artist recounts her late-in-life career change in this “feisty and delightfully irreverent memoir” about art and coming-of-age in your 60s (Boston Globe).“A glorious achievement . . . a cup of courage for everyone who wants to change their lives.” —Tayari Jones, author of An America...

Following her retirement from Princeton University, celebrated historian Dr. Nell Irvin Painter surprised everyone in her life by returning to school―in her sixties―to earn a BFA and MFA in painting. In Old in Art School, she travels from her beloved Newark to the prestigious Rhode Island School of Design; finds meaning in the artists she loves, even as she comes to understand how they may be undervalued; and struggles with the unstable balance between the pursuit of art and the i...

Sonja is ready to get on with her life. She's over forty now, and the Swedish crime novels she translates are losing their fascination. She sees a masseuse, tries to reconnect with her sister, and is finally learning to drive. But under the overbearing gaze of her driving instructor, Sonja is unable to shift gears for herself. And her vertigo, which she has always carefully hidden, has begun to manifest at the worst possible moments.Sonja hoped her move to Copenhagen years ago woul...

"This collection will change the way all stories—short and long—are told, written, and consumed." —KIESE LAYMON, author of HeavyIn two-time O. Henry-prize winner Swamy's debut collection of stories, dreams collide with reality, modernity collides with antiquity, myth with true identity, and women grapple with desire, with ego, with motherhood and mortality. In "Earthly Pleasures," Radika, a young painter living alone in San Francisco, begi...

"This book is astonishing. You'll be smiling even as your heart is breaking, and you'll tip willingly into this world Bump offers you, because what appears again and again are spectacular beams of light also called love, also called hope, also called family. Gabriel Bump has established himself as a stunning talent to be reckoned with." -Maaza Mengiste, author of Beneath the Lion's Gaze In this powerful, edgy, and funny debut novel about making right and wrong choices, Gabriel Bump gives u...

**A ferociously talented writer makes his stunning debut with this richly woven tapestry, set in a small Nova Scotia town settled by former slaves, that depicts several generations of one family bound together and torn apart by blood, faith, time, and fate.Vogue : Best Books to Read This Winter**Structured as a triptych, Africaville chronicles the lives of three generations of the Sebolt family—Kath Ella, her son Omar/Etienne, and her grandson Warner—whose lives unfold agai...

**The New York Times Bestseller“[Smith’s] slim collection of essays captures this peculiar moment with startling clarity. . . . The personal and political intermingle for a powerful indictment of America’s social systems.” —TIME“While quarantined amid the Covid-19 pandemic, Smith penned six dazzling, trenchant essays burrowing deep into our contemporary culture of disease and upheaval and reflecting on what was ‘once necessary’ that now ‘appears inessentia...

Excellent Women is probably the most famous of Barbara Pym's novels. The acclaim a few years ago for this early comic novel, which was hailed by Lord David Cecil as one of 'the finest examples of high comedy to have appeared in England during the past seventy-five years,' helped launch the rediscovery of the author's entire work. Mildred Lathbury is a clergyman's daughter and a spinster in the England of the 1950s, one of those 'excellent women' who tend to get involved in other p...

**NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY NPR, PEOPLE, AND O, THE OPRAH MAGAZINEA NEW YORK TIMES CRITICS’ TOP BOOK OF THE YEARNATIONAL BESTSELLER“As good as The Friend, if not better.” —The New York Times“Impossible to put down . . . leavened with wit and tenderness.” —People“I was dazed by the novel’s grace.”** —**The New YorkerThe New York Times–bestselling, National Book Award...

**Winner of the 2018 National Book Critics Circle Award for CriticismA New York Times Notable BookFrom Zadie Smith, one of the most beloved authors of her generation, a new collection of essays**Since she burst spectacularly into view with her debut novel almost two decades ago, Zadie Smith has established herself not just as one of the world's preeminent fiction writers, but also a brilliant and singular essayist. She contributes regularly to The New Y...

"[These essays] reflect a lively, unselfconscious, rigorous, erudite, and earnestly open mind that's busy refining its view of life, literature, and a great deal in between." —Los Angeles TimesSplit into five sections--Reading, Being, Seeing, Feeling, and Remembering--Changing My Mind finds Zadie Smith casting an acute eye over material both personal and cultural. This engaging collection of essays, some published here for the first time, reveals ...

A “gripping, inspiring, and politically revolutionary” novel about loneliness, inadequacy, and connection, set against the backdrop of the Norwegian postal service—for fans of Nicole Krauss and Sheila Heti (Vanity Fair).From the prize-winning Norwegian author of Will and Testament, longlisted for the National Book Award.Ellinor, a 35-year-old media consultant, has not been feeling herself; she’s not been feeling much at al...