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A disillusioned Parisian writer finds inspiration in the ordinary lives of his neighbours, the Martins. ‘A wonderful surprise'L'Express Is it true that every life is the stuff of novels? Or are some people just too ordinary?This is the question a struggling Parisian writer asks when he challenges himself to write about the first person he sees when he steps outside his apartment. Secretly hoping to meet the beautiful woman who occasionally smokes on his street, he instead sets eyes on octogenarian Madeleine. She's happy to become the subject of his project, but first she needs to put her shopping away…Wondering if his project is doomed to be hopelessly banal, he soon finds himself tangled in the lives of Madeleine's family. Though calm on the surface, the Martins have secrets, troubles and woes, and the writer discovers that the most compelling story is that of an ordinary life.

'Perhaps the luminous novel is this thing that I started writing today; just now. Maybe these sheets of paper are a warm-up exercise. […] But it's quite possible that if I go on writing – as I usually do – with no plan; although this time I know very well what I want to say; things will start to take shape; to come together. I can feel the familiar taste of a literary adventure in my throat. I'll take that as confirmation; then; and start describing what I think was the beginning of my spiritual awakening – though nobody should expect religious sermons at this point; they'll come later. It all began with some ruminations prompted by a dog.'A writer attempts to complete the novel for which he has been awarded a big fat Guggenheim grant; though for a long time he succeeds mainly in procrastinating – getting an electrician to rewire his living room so he can reposition his computer; buying an armchair; or rather; two:'In one; you can't possibly read: it's uncomfortable and your back ends up crooked and sore. In the other; you can't possibly relax: the hard backrest means you have to sit up straight and pay attention; which makes it ideal if you want to read.'Insomniacs; romantics and anyone who's ever written (or failed to write) will fall in love with this compelling masterpiece told by a true original; with all his infuriating faults; charming wit and intriguing musings.

Aristotle'Aris'Thibodeau is 12.5 years old and destined for greatness. Ever since her father's death, however, she's been stuck in the small town of Kanuga, Georgia, where she has to manage her mother Diane's floundering love life and dubious commitment to her job as an English professor. Not to mention co-parenting a little brother who hogs all the therapy money. Luckily, Aris has a plan. Following the advice laid out in Write a Novel in Thirty Days! she sets out to pen a bestseller using her charmingly dysfunctional family as material. If the Mom-character, Diane, would ditch online dating and accept that the perfect man is clearly the handyman/nanny-character, Penn MacGuffin, Aris would have the essential romance for her plot (and a father in her real life). But when a random accident uncovers a dark part of Thibodeau family history, Aris is forced to confront the fact that sometimes in life—as in great literature—things might not work out exactly as planned.

A “hilarious and addictive” novel about a grandmother who just wants to be left alone, from the author of Starting Out in the Evening (San Francisco Chronicle). Named a Best Book of the Year by NPR, the San Francisco Chronicle, Salon, and The Millions, and a Best Fiction Book of the Year by the Christian Science Monitor · Finalist for the Kirkus Prize · Meet Florence Gordon: blunt, brilliant, cantankerous, passionate, feminist icon to young women, invisible to almost everyone else. At seventy-five, Florence has earned her right to set down the burdens of family and work and shape her legacy at long last. But just as she begins to write her long-deferred memoir, her son Daniel returns to New York from Seattle with his wife and daughter, and they embroil Florence in their dramas, clouding the clarity of her days and threatening her well-defended solitude. And then there's her left foot, which is starting to drag… With humor and a tender respect for humanity in all its flaws, Brian Morton introduces a constellation of unforgettable characters—chief among them Florence, who can humble the fools surrounding her with one barbed line, but eventually finds there are realities even she cannot outwit. “Morton's intelligent, layered portrait of a feisty, independent older woman is an absolute joy to read, not only for its delightful wit but also for its dignified appraisal of aging and living life on one's own terms.”—Booklist(starred review) “Exquisitely crafted…Witty, nuanced and ultimately moving.”—Maureen Corrigan, NPR's Fresh Air “Smart, funny, and compassionate…a treat.”— People “It's such a cliché to say a book makes you laugh and cry, but this one does, in the deftest way.” —Emily Gould, Paste “Deliciously sharp and deeply sympathetic…a truly gifted novelist.”—Adam Kirsch, Tablet “Morton's intelligent, layered portrait of a feisty, independent older woman is an absolute joy to read, not only for its delightful wit but also for its dignified appraisal of aging and living life on one's own terms.”—Booklist (starred review) “Exquisitely crafted…Witty, nuanced and ultimately moving.”—Maureen Corrigan, NPR's Fresh Air “Smart, funny, and compassionate…a treat.”— People “It's such a cliché to say a book makes you laugh and cry, but this one does, in the deftest way.” —Emily Gould, Paste “Deliciously sharp and deeply sympathetic…a truly gifted novelist.”—Adam Kirsch, Tablet

This is the story of a boy from working class Queens who discovers poetry, an unlikely obsession that leads him from a Jesuit college's all male, sex-starved campus to the St. Mark's Poetry Project, and then to the Iowa Writers Workshop. He makes up for his previous lack of romance while at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, and goes on to teach at two colleges, with a stay at Yaddo in between. John crosses paths with Raymond Carver, Robert Creeley and John Cheever, and receives guidance from mentors like Stanley Kunitz and strangers like Allen Ginsberg. A Moveable Famine is, ultimately, the portrait of an individual and an age. Above all, it is a book about identity.

Harry Gill, a moderately successful writer of historical fiction, has been awarded the annual Watercress–Armstrong Fellowship—a ‘living memorial'to the poet, Margaret Rose Hurndell. He arrives in the small French village of Menton, where Hurndell once lived and worked, to write. But the Memorial Room is not suitable—it has no electricity or water. Hurndell never wrote here, though it is expected of Harry.Janet Frame's previously unpublished novel draws on her own experiences in Menton, France as a Katherine Mansfield Fellow. It is a wonderful social satire, a send–up of the cult of the dead author, and—in the best tradition of Frame—a fascinating exploration of the complexity and the beauty of language.

“A truly funny sendup of the corrupt politics of academe, the publishing industry and politics, as well as a subtle but biting critique of racial ideology.” —Publishers WeeklyThis “hilarious high-concept satire” (Publishers Weekly), by the PEN/Faulkner finalist and acclaimed author of Telephone and Erasure, is a fictitious and satirical chronicle of South Carolina Senator Strom Thurmond's desire to pen a history of African-Americans—his and his aides'belief being that he has done as much, or more, than any American to shape that history. An epistolary novel, The History follows the letters of loose cannon Congressional office workers, insane interns at a large New York publishing house and disturbed publishing executives, along with homicidal rival editors, kindly family friends, and an aspiring author named Septic. Strom Thurmond appears charming and open, mad and sure of his place in American history.“Outrageously funny... it could become a cult classic.” —Library Journal“I think Percival Everett is a genius. I've been a fan since his first novel... He's a brilliant writer and so damn smart I envy him.” —Terry McMillan, New York Times-bestselling author of It's Not All Downhill from Here“God bless Percival Everett, whose dozens of idiosyncratic books demonstrate a majestic indifference to literary trends, the market or his critics.”?The Wall Street Journal

Lucy has a sitch. She doesn't believe in fairy tale's and she's smack dab in the middle of one. What's a girl supposed to do when she's traded all of her glass slippers for cigarettes and glitter?

Dave, I just finished the first chapter of a new novel-a real crime novel with a dead body and all-and I thought of you... Paul and Lacey Hansen are pot-growing, twentysomething siblings sharing a modest rambler of a home in rural Northern California. When they find a headless corpse on their property they can't exactly call 911, so they simply move the body to another location. Let somebody else find it. Instead, the corpse reappears on their land. Clearly, someone is sending them a message, and it's getting riper by the day. But that's only half of the story...Enter authors Lisa Lutz and David Hayward-former real-life partners (professionally and personally) who have agreed to reunite for a tag- team mystery novel written in alternating chapters. One little problem: they disagree on pretty much every detail of how their novel should unfold. While the body count rises in Paul and Lacey's wildly unpredictable fictional world, so too does the intensity of Lisa and David's rivalry. The result is a literary brawl like no other, and a murder mystery every bit as unanticipated (and bloody).