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In beautifully written and powerfully thought prose, A World Out of Reach offers a crucial record of the cataclysmic spring of 2020—a record for us to share with one another, and for posterity, in the voices of writers of disparate backgrounds. When the coronavirus outbreak came to the West, The Yale Review began asking writers to think out loud on the page about the unfolding international crisis, to capture the immediacy of a swiftly changing global pandemic. This crisis has mostly been told through the voices of journalists, scientists, and politicians, but in this collection, poets, essayists, scholars, and health care workers provide a more intimate and diverse account. Ranging from high matters of policy to ancient history to personal stories of how individuals were surviving their days, this vivid compilation presents a first draft of one of most tumultuous periods in modern history.Contributors: Katie Kitamura • Laura Kolbe • Nitin Ahuja • Natasha Randall • Rena Xu • Alicia Christoff • Miranda Featherstone • Maya C. Popa • Major Jackson • John Witt • Octávio Luiz Motta Ferraz • Joan Naviyuk Kane • Emmeline Clein • Nell Freudenberger • Briallen Hopper • Brandon Shimoda • Ben Purkert • Yusef Komunyakaa • Laren McClung • Eric O'Keefe-Krebs • Sean Lynch • Millicent Marcus • Meghana Mysore • Rachel Jamison Webster • Emily Ziff Griffin • Rowan Ricardo Philips • Kathryn Lofton • Monica Ferrell • Russell Morse • Randi Hutter Epstein • Noreen Khawaja • Victoria Chang • Joyelle McSweeney • Khameer Kidia • Emily Greenwood • Elisa Gabbert • Emily Bernard • Hafizah Geter • Emily Gogolak • Roger Reeves

“[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, The 100 Must-Read Books of 2020“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 inessential...'” —O, The Oprah Magazine, Best Books of 2020“Smith does more than illuminate what we're going through right now. She offers a model of how to think ourselves through a fraught historical moment without getting hysterical or sanctimonious, without losing our compassion or our appreciation for what's good in other people. She teaches us how to be better at being human.” —John Powers, Fresh AirA New York Times BestsellerDeeply personal and powerfully moving, a short and timely series of reflective essays by one of the most clear-sighted and essential writers of our time.Written during the early months of lockdown, Intimations explores ideas and questions prompted by an unprecedented situation. What does it mean to submit to a new reality--or to resist it? How do we compare relative sufferings? What is the relationship between time and work? In our isolation, what do other people mean to us? How do we think about them? What is the ratio of contempt to compassion in a crisis? When an unfamiliar world arrives, what does it reveal about the world that came before it?Suffused with a profound intimacy and tenderness in response to these extraordinary times, Intimations is a slim, suggestive volume with a wide scope, in which Zadie Smith clears a generous space for thought, open enough for each reader to reflect on what has happened--and what should come next.The author will donate her royalties from the sale of Intimations to charity.