A profoundly ambitious, deeply American book about what it’s like to be alive in the 21st century, named by Publishers Weekly a Big Book of Winter Institute 14Set in Newcomerstown, Ohio, in 2017, the book primarily documents the inner monologue of a middle-aged mother, whose thoughts range from recipe tips and the contents of her freezer, to her son’s science projects on industrial pollution and the pressures faced by her mixed-race teenage daughter, to intrusive ones implanted by ...

A whirlwind Manhattan romance like you've never read before from the Booker Prize nominated author of Ducks, Newburyport.It's Christmas Eve in Manhattan. An eminent plastic surgeon slips on the ice, lands on his butt, and sprains his ankle. So far, so good. A woman such as he's never known yanks him to his feet and conjures the miracle of a taxi.Harrison recuperates with Franz Schubert, Bette Davis, and a foundling cat. Then it's back to rhinoplast...

An Independent Best Book of 2021“[Ellmann] delivers these diatribes with her signature wit and humor ... Each essay is accompanied by an illustration by artist Diana Hope, which complements the colorful nature of this collection. Fans of Ellmann will likely delight in Things Are Against Us.”—Chicago Review of BooksThe author of the Goldsmiths Prize-winning and Booker-shortlisted blockbuster Ducks, Newburyport

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold. As Yeats pointed out, things have a lot to answer for. These satirical essays jauntily tackle the obstinacy, incorrigibility, and recalcitrance of things, Laura Ingalls Wilder’s unimpressive descriptions of theconstruction of bobsleds and door latches, and the way we try to stand on our own two feet, put our best foot forward, remain footloose and fancy-free, and inevitably put our foot in it. They also cover the first suggestion the intern...

WINNER OF THE 2019 GOLDSMITHS PRIZESHORTLISTED FOR THE 2019 BOOKER PRIZEA NEW YORKER BEST BOOK OF 2019A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF 2019A TIME MUST-READ BOOK OF 2019A WASHINGTON POST NOT...