Two newly translated works from one of the greatest literary writers and thinkers of the modern age, available together in English for the first time. Translating a work from its original language can be complicated; it's a complex art that can easily...

A collection of the year's best essays, selected by critically acclaimed author and essayist, Jia Tolentino. The Best American series, launched in 1915, is the premier annual showcase for the country's finest short fiction and nonfiction, and it is the...

The arc of literary giant John Updike’s life emerges in these luminous daily letters to family, friends, editors, and lovers—a remarkable outpouring over six decades, from his earliest consciousness as a writer to his final days.As James Schiff writes in...

Book by Merquior, J. G.

So begins Arabelle Sicardi's blazingly original collection of essays. A former beauty editor, Arabelle has devoted their entire adult life to the subject of beauty--they have analyzed it, criticized it, praised it, benefited from it, loathed it. Now, in...

An engaging, approachable introduction to literary modernism Modernism represented an astonishing outbreak of cultural innovation, spanning artforms and nations. It was centred around feelings of growing alienation in an industrial world, and a desire...

A landmark biography of one of our most prominent chroniclers of American life In this groundbreaking literary biography, Steven J. Zipperstein captures the complex life and astonishing work of Philip Roth (1933-2018), one of America's most celebrated...

The bestselling and award-winning German author Jenny Erpenbeck has gained international praise for her novels including Visitation, Kairos, and Go, Went, Gone. Things that Disappear is an exciting collection of interlinked miniature prose pieces that...

A collection of exceptional new essays by one of the most significant contemporary writers on the world stage Tracing a loose arc from Edwidge Danticat’s childhood to the COVID-19 pandemic and recent events in Haiti, the essays gathered in We’re Alone...

A user’s guide to the fundamental practice of literary studies, providing context, examples, and practical exercises Close reading—making an argument based in close attention to a text—is the foundation of literary studies. This book offers a guide to...

"Chaudhary's theoretical dexterity and brilliant mapping of the political symptomology of cultural phenomena together render Paranoid Publics indispensable for grasping the contemporary political landscape. Paranoia, he reminds us, is a feeling, one that...

An incisive collection about motherhood and creative life through the lens of mothers―in history, literature, and pop culture―who have abandoned their children.What kind of mother abandons her child? It’s a question that conjures the worst kind of moral...

From the beloved New Yorker writer Susan Orlean, New York Times bestselling author of The Orchid Thief and The Library Book and hailed as “a national treasure” by The Washington Post, Joyride is a masterful memoir of finding her creative calling and...

From the 2025 recipient of the Pak Kyongni Prize, often referred to as Korea's Nobel Prize in Literature. A collection of essays on themes central to Ghosh's work: imperialism and decolonization, climate change, and the stories of ordinary people...

From legendary filmmaker and author Werner Herzog, a compact, effervescent, and deeply personal exploration of art, philosophy, and history that unravels one of our most elusive and contested questions: What is truth—and how to find it in our...

A debut essay collection from the winner of the 2022 Deborah Tall Lyric Essay Book Prize.Katherine Indermaur's full-length debut, I|I, is a serial lyric essay that explores the mirror's many dimensions --philosophical, spiritual, scientific,...

From the distinguished polymath George Steiner comes a profound vision of the inseparability of Western philosophy and its living language. With his hallmark forceful discernment, George Steiner presents in The Poetry of Thought his magnum opus: an...

An illuminating reflection on the creative process from acclaimed fiction writer, essayist, and translator Lydia Davis When asked why she writes, Lydia Davis confesses that the question makes her uncomfortable. Maybe she would rather not know. Instead,...