New this week is David Bezmozgis’s The Free World, the new Geoff Dyer collection of criticism Otherwise Known as the Human Condition (reviewed here today), “Professor X’s” higher ed expose In the Basement of the Ivory Tower, Funeral for a Dog, a German novel in translation by young author Thomas Pletzinger, which John Wray has blurbed as “ballsy,” and Chinaberry, a posthumously published novel by the Appalachian author James Still.
Tuesday New Release Day: Bezmozgis, Dyer, Professor X, Pletzinger, Still
Tuesday New Release Day: Egan; Eugenides; Thien; Okeowo; Solomon; St. Aubyn; Machado; Coates
Out this week: Manhattan Beach by Jennifer Egan; Fresh Complaint by Jeffrey Eugenides; Dogs at the Perimeter by Madeleine Thien; A Moonless, Starless Sky by Alexis Okeowo; An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon; Dunbar by Edward St. Aubyn; Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado (whom we interviewed recently); and We Were Eight Years in Power by Ta-Nehisi Coates. For more on these and other new titles, go read our most recent book preview.
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The Tables Have Turned
First humans wrote poems made of computer code, and now computers are writing poems made of English words.
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Writer’s Best Friend
“Not long ago The New York Times featured a story about a Brazilian motel for dogs—to promote amorous canine liasons—that also sold nonalcoholic dog beer, had a Japanese ofuro soaking tub, and lots of branded dog apparel.” The current state of man’s best friend.
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$200,000? Who Said Publishing’s On the Outs?
Aspiring novelists, take note: when you get a $200,000 advance for one of your books, don’t buy any clothes.
Intersections and Turns
Recommended Reading: Noy Holland on writing fiction, a form rooted in deft timing, accidents, and revelations.
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Smoking Knausgaard
“[E]ach video is a portrait of the artist as a beginner—and a look at the creative process, in all its joy, abjection, delusion, and euphoria.” The Paris Review has a new video series called “My First Time,” in which big-name authors talk about getting their start. Helen DeWitt, Jeffrey Eugenides, Sheila Heti, a chain-smoking Karl Ove Knausgaard – what more could anyone want? More origin stories, that’s what! Six writers – Colum McCann, Alexander Chee, Jami Attenberg, Emily St. John Mandel, Justin Taylor, and Anthony Marra – look back on their first books for us.
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Nabokov on Butterflies
Vladimir Nabokov, who lived a parallel existence as a self-taught expert on butterflies and a Harvard museum curator, has had his theory on butterfly evolution finally proved sixty-five years later. (Thanks, Kevin)
No love for Michael Crummey’s GALORE, Max? Yes, I realize it only just came out in the States today after two years in Canada. But given its ambition (which is very much up your alley), I figured I’d bring it to your attention. The Dyer volume, however, is very good.
Ed, The book probably should have been included here. An oversight, though there is no real rhyme or reason to how these new release updates are compiled. Anyway, it’s not as though we’ve been ignoring Galore. Michael wrote a nice essay about his book, whales, and Moby Dick for us last week.