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‘Our endeavour has thrived in this period because people have kicked against first Bush’s and now Trump’s America’: Edwin Frank, poet and the founder and editorial director of the NYRB Classics series.

Edwin Frank: ‘The best art is often powerfully irrelevant’

E dwin Frank is a poet and the founder and editorial director of the NYRB Classics series, a publisher of old books and new translations. Among the writers on its eclectic list are Eve Babitz , Colette, JG Farrell, Mavis Gallant, Tove Jansson, Olivia Manning , Janet Malcolm , Alexander Pushkin, Elizabeth Taylor , and Stefan Zweig . NYRB Classics celebrates its 20th birthday this year, an anniversary it marked last month with the publication of The Red Thread , a selection (edited by Frank) of extracts from some of its books.

When you first mooted the idea of a classics list to Rea Hederman, the owner of the New York Review of Books , did it seem a little preposterous, even to you? At the time, I don’t think I knew how unlikely an enterprise it was. About six months after we began, I was talking to this very distinguished publisher about Joyce Cary [the Anglo-Irish novelist], and he said: “Oh, yes… how many of his books did we sell last year? Was it 69?” It had never crossed my mind that any book I thought of as interesting would sell as few copies as that.

And yet the list is a success. How do the books reach readers? I used to say things like: can we pitch this as the old Sex and the City ? But I don’t think readers are fooled. They know that the old Sex and the City is not the new Sex and the City . There is a way in which the series sells the series. What I mean is that there is a certain logic in our eclecticism: it has multiple entry points. People might see a book they remember having loved, pick up anew and that might in turn lead them to take a look at books, also published by us, that they’ve never heard of. They’re awakened by the project as a whole.

How important is it to publish voices from elsewhere at a time when the US government is encouraging the country to turn in on itself? I’m probably deluding myself, but I think it’s very important. Our endeavour, and that of some other small presses, has thrived in this period because people have kicked against first Bush’s and now Trump’s America. They have remembered that there is life elsewhere.

What is it that makes a book last? I am looking for a book that still has the power to surprise: not just shock effects, but some sense of lived experience that is still palpable. I tend to be interested in books that have some sense of historical horizon and occasion: the notion that, though this was another time, we can see our own time in it as well.

People use the word “relevant” a lot these days. Must a book be relevant? I’m extremely suspicious of the notion. It seems to me simply to feed people back to themselves. The best art is often powerfully irrelevant. I prefer the idea of currency, which is not quite the same as relevance. A book that has currency puts our present concerns in a different but distinct perspective.

Is it relaxing dealing mostly with dead authors? Well, you don’t have to deal with authorial vanity! It’s also true that other people have let these books go. We don’t have to bid the entire bank in order to get them.

Can you pick out a few favourite titles? A High Wind in Jamaica [a 1929 novel about children and pirates by the Welsh writer Richard Hughes] is a deep yarn, almost a kind of fairytale, which I continue to be very attached to [NRYB reissued it in 1999]. I love Sylvia Townsend Warner [the author of, among other novels, Lolly Willowes , which is about a witch ]. She is a brilliant writer who always tries with each book to do something a little different; I think that may have conspired against her in her lifetime. We published a book of essays by Simon Leys, the Belgian sinologist, called The Hall of Uselessness . At the time [2013], I thought: we can’t possibly do a 500-page book of essays that have already appeared elsewhere. But then I read it and I realised that we couldn’t not do it. The range. It includes an extraordinary portrait of André Gide : one of the great literary portraits. There’s also a beautiful essay about Chinese aesthetics and a polemic against Christopher Hitchens , which I enjoyed. It made its own case for publication.

You publish several books by Kingsley Amis , a writer who is these days thought rather unfashionable. Why? Well, he is a provocateur. He’s also extremely funny at his best. Lucky Jim is a period piece, but it has the same rebellious energy as On the Road . The Alt Amis has more range than people think, and an interest in genre, which is one of the threads of our series. eration [set in a parallel universe in which the Reformation did not happen] is an alternative history, while The Green Man is a ghost story. He has a way of discomforting the reader that I find impressive.

Is it harder to find female writers? Do you look out for them? When you’re dealing with the past, it is a problem: men simply had more strategic access to the world of literature and publishing. But we do Barbara Comyns, May Sinclair, Sylvia Townsend Warner, Elizabeth Hardwick, Elizabeth Taylor… I don’t think people have taken her [Taylor’s] proper measure yet. She is so steely.

Is there a book you wish had been more noticed? One you feel a bit sorry for? Tristana is a novel of 1892 by the Spanish writer Benito Pérez Galdós. It was made into a film by Luis Buñuel [in 1970]. It’s about women’s rights and it’s set in a cloistered society – so cloistered that it’s almost surreal. It’s very sophisticated about human behaviour.

What titles are coming up in the near future? We’re publishing Diary of a Foreigner in Paris by Curzio Malaparte [the Italian war correspondent, who died in 1957; best known as the author of Kaputt ]. He’s such an unreliable narrator. In this book, he claims that he’s unwelcome wherever he goes; he’s in exile and only friends with the dogs. We’re also going to do a French novel, Malicroix , that was recommended to us by Michael Frayn. It’s by Henri Bosco, from 1948. It’s about a man who inherits a house on an island in a river in the Camargue. But in order to get it, he has to live there alone for three months.

Does your job make you feel hopeful about the future for books and reading? Yes, and it goes on surprising me: the fact that people love this or that book. It’s kind of wonderful.

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8 Lost Masterpieces from NYRB Classics

The best of an imprint that digs deep into lost classics.

nyrb classics books

First launched in 1999, the New York Review Books Classics series has famously come to be known for its unearthing of lost masterpieces. The series is comprised of incredible books that somehow slipped through the cracks of time, only to be rediscovered by NYRB’s obsessive editors and re-published in tidy, color-coded volumes. 

Now numbering in the hundreds, sifting through its bookshelf isn’t always easy. Here, we select our eight favorite books published by NYRB Classics.

stoner by john williams, nyrb classics books

By John Williams

William Stoner is a poor farmer’s son who finds solace from our uncertain world within the confines of academia. He is treated both fairly and harshly, through bitter colleagues, a hardhearted wife, an absent daughter and all-too-brief affairs. From adolescence to a tragically beautiful death, this is an average life where nothing is spared.

The book that brought NYRB Classics into the mainstream, Stoner is the very definition of a “lost classic,” a novel that disappeared soon after its initial release, whispered and rumored about for decades, and republished to instant acclaim. Beautifully written, it’s been celebrated by everyone from Julian Barnes to Ian McEwan.

stoner by john williams, nyrb classics books

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chess story by stefan zweig, a nyrb classics book

Chess Story

By Stefan Zweig

On a ship from New York to Buenos Aires, a group of chess fans encounter the world champion, his ego and arrogance setting up a match that they know they can’t win. But there in the corner, a man chimes in with a strategy that can’t be beat—how he knows the inner workings of the royal game and why it matters, is the “story” in question.

A celebrity in his time, Zweig’s own story is as tragic as his last tale, suffering through the fall of intellectualism and rise of the great wars, before finally committing suicide in Brazil. Chess Story was the last thing he wrote, and it’s ironically the perfect introduction to his works—short and pithy, tense and tragic, tapping into the baseline emotions of all humans.

Related: 7 Books About the Thrilling Game of Chess

chess story by stefan zweig, a nyrb classics book

Hard Rain Falling

By Don Carpenter

Jack Levitt is born into a traumatic background in the poverty-stricken backstreets of Portland, Oregon. Growing up as a hustler in its pool halls and whorehouses, he encounters Billy Lancing, who soon becomes a lifelong friend, and then, when tragedies collide, his cellmate at San Quentin.

Like Dostoevsky siphoned through America, Carpenter’s hard-boiled account of two boys-to-men stuck in a cycle of violence reads truer than most crime works that crowd shelves. Here, we feel the pain and sorrow, the chances at redemption quickly stamped out by an unfair world, and the consolations we can occasionally find among each other.

hard rain falling, a nyrb classics book by don carpenter

Invention of Morel

By Adolfo Bioy Casares

A fugitive escaping to a deserted island thinks he’s alone, until he starts to see the structures of a small town. There are people arriving in the distance, parties being thrown and affairs being had. Why are they here? What do they want? And most important of all, why can’t they see him?

A work of magical realism before it was given a name, Casares’ short work had a profound influence on the genre’s many authors, from Borges to Marquez. It’s all here, from the surreal setting to the literary allusions, unreliable narrators to ambiguous narratives, all forming the framework of the many masterpieces that came after, while being entirely whole in itself.

the invention of morel, a nyrb classic book

Life and Fate

By Vasily Grossman

Life and Fate traces the lives of the Shaposhinikovs during the height of World War II, a family that stretches from peasants to the bourgeois, scientists to soldiers, as the fate of Russia ebbs and flows between defeat on the home front and victories alongside the Allies.  

The title is no hyperbole – Grossman modelled his epic novel on Tolstoy’s War and Peace , restructuring the narrative to his own Soviet times and channeling the realism that made up communist communication. Quickly confiscated by the KGB after its release, it’s an epic that sits atop with the other Russian greats .

life and fate, an nyrb classic book

A Month in the Country

By J.L. Carr

Following the First World War, Tom Birkin arrives in a small UK village to help restore a church’s medieval mural, living simply while he encounters the kindly folk who make up the area’s populace. It’s here, as quiet starts to settle in and the art and approachability combine for something serene, that he begins to find peace.

A very British novel that charts a very British month for a very British man, Carr’s work is as leisurely-paced and regenerative as the Yorkshire countryside it depicts, peering into the main character’s recent trauma while surrounded by layers of time. The story might be simple, but its effects are profound.

Related: Why the Lost Generation Writers Still Resonate With Us

a month in the country, an nyrb classics book

Store of the Worlds: The Stories of Robert Sheckley

By Robert Sheckley

Robert Sheckley was a funny and perceptive man. Here in his 26 short stories lie the absurdist questioning that’s rarely found in classic sci-fi works , from the many tales of first contact through to the tragedies of a population outgrowing its world.

Originally published at the height of sci-fi literary obsession in the 1950s, these short stories showcase an author who went deeper into sci-fi philosophies than most authors of his era, always questioning life’s absurdity, even as it was being lived thousands of years in the future and millions of miles away.

store of the worlds, an nyrb classics book

A Time of Gifts

By Patrick Leigh Fermor

An adventurer who never stopped exploring, A Time of Gifts charts Fermor’s attempts at an on-foot journey from his London home into then-Constantinople, at the edge of Asia. A fortuitous and frightening time, his experiences see the rise of Hitler and its effects on Europe, the gypsy lives of the Slavic heartland, as well as his own coming-of-age in a quickly changing landscape.

Fermor was a treasure of a travel writer and here, at just 18-years old, we follow that glorious period between adolescence and adulthood, explored unlike most with new sights, sounds and cultures at every turn.

a time a gifts, an nyrb classics book

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9 New Books We Recommend This Week

Suggested reading from critics and editors at The New York Times.

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Our recommended books this week run the gamut from a behind-the-scenes look at the classic film “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” to a portrait of suburbia in decline to a collection of presidential love letters with the amazing title “Are You Prepared for the Storm of Love Making?” (That question comes from a mash note written by Woodrow Wilson.) In fiction, we recommend debuts from DéLana R.A. Dameron, Alexander Sammartino and Rebecca K Reilly, alongside new novels by Cormac James, Ashley Elston and Kristin Hannah. Happy reading. — Gregory Cowles

COCKTAILS WITH GEORGE AND MARTHA: Movies, Marriage and the Making of “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” Philip Gefter

Rarely seen diary entries from the screenwriter who adapted Edward Albee’s Broadway hit are a highlight of this unapologetically obsessive behind-the-scenes look at the classic film starring the super-couple Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor.

the new york review of books classics

“Showed how the ‘cartoon versions of marriage’ long served up by American popular culture ... always came with a secret side of bitters.”

From Alexandra Jacobs’s review

Bloomsbury | $32

TRONDHEIM Cormac James

James’s new novel is a deep dive into a family navigating a crisis. It follows two mothers waiting in the I.C.U. to see if their son will wake up from a coma, and through that framework, explores their lives, their relationship, their beliefs and much more.

the new york review of books classics

“Hospital time has a particular and peculiar quality, and ‘Trondheim’ is dedicated to capturing the way it unfolds.”

From Katie Kitamura’s review

Bellevue Literary Press | Paperback, $17.99

REDWOOD COURT DéLana R.A. Dameron

This richly textured and deeply moving debut novel begins with an innocuous question: “What am I made of?” From there, a young Black girl in South Carolina begins to grapple with — and attempt to make sense of — a complicated family history and her place in it.

the new york review of books classics

“Dameron is a prizewinning poet and it shows: She does a beautiful job weaving in local vernacular and casting a fresh gaze on an engaging, though flawed, cast of characters.”

From Charmaine Wilkerson’s review

Dial Press | $28

LAST ACTS Alexander Sammartino

In this hilarious debut, a young man moves in with his father after a near-fatal overdose and decides to help save the family business, a Phoenix gun shop facing foreclosure. Their idea is to pledge a cut of every sale to fighting drug addiction, but they soon find themselves mired in controversy.

the new york review of books classics

“Sammartino is extraordinarily good at balancing the farcical nature of contemporary America with the complex humanity of his characters. He’s also a magnificent sentence writer.”

From Dan Chaon’s review

Scribner | $27

DISILLUSIONED: Five Families and the Unraveling of America’s Suburbs Benjamin Herold

Once defined by big homes, great schools and low taxes, the country’s suburbs, Herold shows in this dispiriting but insightful account, were poorly planned and are now saddled with poverty, struggling schools, dilapidated infrastructure and piles of debt.

the new york review of books classics

“An important, cleareyed account of suburban boom and bust, and the challenges facing the country today.”

From Ben Austen’s review

Penguin Press | $32

ARE YOU PREPARED FOR THE STORM OF LOVE MAKING? Letters of Love and Lust From the White House Dorothy and Thomas Hoobler

This charming collection features presidents from Washington to Obama writing about courtship, marriage, war, diplomacy, love, lust and loss, in winningly besotted tones.

the new york review of books classics

“Answers the question ‘What does a president in love sound like?’ with a refreshing ‘Just as dopey as anybody else.’ ... It is a lovely book, stuffed with romantic details.”

From W.M. Akers’s review

Simon & Schuster | $28.99

GRETA & VALDIN Rebecca K Reilly

Reilly’s generous, tender debut novel follows the exploits of two queer New Zealand 20-something siblings from a hodgepodge, multicultural family as they navigate the chaos of young adulthood, and as they come closer to understanding themselves and their desires.

the new york review of books classics

“If this novel shows us anything, it’s that love — of family, of romantic partners, of community — is most joyful when it’s without limits.”

From Eleanor Dunn’s review

Avid Reader Press | $28

THE WOMEN Kristin Hannah

In her latest historical novel, Hannah shows the Vietnam War through the eyes of a combat nurse. But what the former debutante witnesses and experiences when she comes home from the war is the true gut punch of this timely story.

the new york review of books classics

“The familiar beats snare you from the outset. ... Hannah’s real superpower is her ability to hook you along from catastrophe to catastrophe, sometimes peering between your fingers, because you simply cannot give up on her characters.”

From Beatriz Williams’s review

St. Martin’s | $27

FIRST LIE WINS Ashley Elston

In Elston’s edgy, smart thriller, Evie Porter has just moved in with her boyfriend, a hunky Louisiana businessman. Sadly for him, their relationship is likely to be short-lived, because she’s a criminal and he’s her latest mark.

the new york review of books classics

“Evie makes for a winning, nimble character. Elston raises the stakes with unexpected developments.”

From Sarah Lyall’s thrillers column

Pamela Dorman Books | $28

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The Oscar-nominated film “Poor Things” is based on a 1992 book by Alasdair Gray. Beloved by writers, it was never widely read  but is now ripe for reconsideration.

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5 Overlooked Nonfiction New York Review of Books Classics

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Michael Herrington

Michael Herrington is a writer and copy editor from Texas who can never get enough nonfiction, documentaries, and honeycrisp apples. He has a background in journalism, having worked for The Lufkin Daily News and Charm East Texas. His favorite book genres are memoir, history, and essay collection. He can be reached at [email protected].

View All posts by Michael Herrington

For 20 years, The New York Review of Books ‘s publishing division, NYRB Classics being its most famous imprint, has offered a steady supply of under-read and almost-forgotten literary gems to curious readers. While novels like Stoner (perhaps the imprint’s biggest success) and The Invention of Morel  have made the biggest splashes, the library’s nonfiction has been the biggest draw for yours truly.

Here are five overlooked (less than 1,000 Goodreads ratings) nonfiction titles from the NYRB Classics’s catalog. For a lengthier list of great nonfiction, check out Rebecca Hussey’s from last October.

The World I Live In by Helen Keller

Helen Keller’s The Story of My Life is firmly lodged in the autobiographical canon, and even people who haven’t read it or seen its adaptations, usually under the title The Miracle Worker , are familiar with the details of Keller’s childhood. You would expect her followup book to be a sequel, but The World I Live In is a completely different beast. From the direct first page to the rapturous final chapter, Keller explains her condition, corrects misunderstanding and dispels the notion that she is incapable of living a full life. Ironically, through putting her experience on paper and bringing herself down to earth, Keller comes off as even more extraordinary. The term “life-changing” gets attached to books easier than to any other art form, but The World I Live In deserves the label. You can’t help but be transformed by it.

The Crisis of the Negro Intellectual by Harold Cruse

This 550-page work of history and cultural criticism will be a slog for some readers (it’s by far the driest, most dense read on this list) and catnip for others, particularly if you’re into the Harlem Renaissance. Cruse charts the path of black intellectual thought from the 1920s to 1967, the year of the book’s publication, and ends up being harsh on both integrationists and black nationalists. Make no mistake, Cruse was not pro-segregation, but he didn’t see integration as a panacea to racial problems. Highly recommended to those interested in American race relations; just have Wikipedia at the ready.

An African in Greenland by Tété-Michel Kpomassie

It was a routine trip to his town’s missionary bookstore when Tété-Michel Kpomassie, then 16, came across a book about Eskimos in Greenland. When he read it, he instantly fell in love with the country and became determined to go there. For over a decade, Kpomassie worked his way through Africa and Europe and finally sailed to the country of his dreams. The memoir that resulted from his travels rivals the best of the genre in terms of detail and scene-setting. Kpomassie’s good-naturedness and enthusiasm is simply infectious, and the tone of the book reminded me of the globe-trotting surfers from Bruce Brown’s classic documentary The Endless Summer . I knew I was in for an interesting book, but I wasn’t expecting a feel-good one.

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Miami and the Siege of Chicago  by Norman Mailer

This account of 1968’s Republican and Democratic National Conventions usually plays second banana to Mailer’s New Journalism classic The Armies of the Night , but I think Miami and the Siege of Chicago is every bit that book’s equal. The opening half, about the RNC, offers priceless snapshots of Republican higher-ups of the time (As with The Crisis of the Negro Intellectual , have Wikipedia on hand to brush up on your history when you encounter an unfamiliar name), but it’s the ground- (and sometimes balcony-) level dispatch about the Chicago police riot, which broke out in response to anti-Vietnam war protests, that makes this essential reading for anyone interested in 20th-century American history.

Poison Penmanship  by Jessica Mitford

Jessica Mitford published two memoirs, Hons and Rebels  and A Fine Old Conflict , before Poison Penmanship , and in a way this collection of magazine pieces works as a third: a memoir of the writing life. It’s also something of a journalism manual, beginning with a great introduction and following each piece with comments and criticism from Mitford, in which she often kicks herself for missing an opportunity here or there, or wishes she had structured her story differently. Above all, the articles are plain fun. “Maine Chance Diary,” “My Short and Happy Life as a Distinguished Professor” and the two Sign of the Dove pieces in particular are as funny as anything in A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again . Any way you read it, and whatever you take from it, this book is a joy.

the new york review of books classics

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March 7, 2024

Current Issue

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Our 60th Anniversary

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The New York Review Turns Sixty

October 12, 2023

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An Act of Admiration: Editing The New York Review

The Personals section from the December 18, 1969 issue of The New York Review

Where the Elite Meet to Mate

February 9, 2013

The Opening Editorial

November 7, 2013 issue

Founding the New York Review: Two Letters from Robert Lowell to Elizabeth Bishop

November 6, 2003 issue

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On Robert Silvers

Nineteen writers remember The New York Review ’s editor.

May 11, 2017 issue

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Barbara Epstein (1928–2006)

August 10, 2006 issue

Every Eckermann His Own Man

“The NYR made it possible for those writers who don’t necessarily have to knock out instant Opinion pieces for money to develop themes that interested them or—the task of criticism—allowed them the space in which to illuminate the work of a forgotten or misunderstood writer.”

October 27, 1988 issue

For our anniversary cover, James McMullan painted the building where he worked for many years with Milton Glaser. Their former studio is now the Review ’s new home. See the Table of Contents for the full issue here .

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Classics from the Archive

See America First

January 1, 1970 issue

Animal Liberation

April 5, 1973 issue

The Instrumentalist

January 19, 2023 issue

Illness as Metaphor

January 26, 1978 issue

A Letter to My Sister, Miss Angela Davis

January 7, 1971 issue

Billie Holiday

March 4, 1976 issue

The Perils of Pauline

August 14, 1980 issue

Lying in Politics: Reflections on The Pentagon Papers

November 18, 1971 issue

Why Read the Classics?

October 9, 1986 issue

Remembering Orson Welles

June 1, 1989 issue

Kicking the Door

March 22, 1979 issue

Making the Memorial

November 2, 2000 issue

On ‘The Plague’

November 29, 2001 issue

The Enduring Romance of American Communism

April 3, 2020

Food of the Gods

February 26, 1987 issue

The Great Amateur

March 14, 1968 issue

Aimez-Vous Brahms?

October 22, 1998 issue

Saying Good-by to Hannah

January 22, 1976 issue

A Special Supplement: The Responsibility of Intellectuals

February 23, 1967 issue

August 13, 2009 issue

The Marvels of Walter Benjamin

January 11, 2001 issue

A Conversation in Iowa

November 5, 2015 issue

Fidel in the Evening

Sweet Evening Breeze

December 20, 1984 issue

An elephant and mahout doing relief work after the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, Banda Aceh, Indonesia, January 2005

Man’s Biggest Friend

The origins of the elephant–human relationship date back into prehistory.

November 21, 2019 issue

Wonderpus octopus, Lembeh Strait, Indonesia

Octopus: The Footed Void

The closer you look at an octopus, the more you see.

April 30, 2013

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Intrepid Navigators

Migration’s demands on birds are as daunting mentally as they are physically.

February 25, 2021 issue

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Requiem for a Heavyweight

In Fathoms , Rebecca Giggs tries to comprehend the fact that whales now literally embody their increasingly polluted world.

August 19, 2021 issue

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To enjoy the company of a cat, we must be prepared to forgo our dominant pack leader role, and adopt a more modest position.

November 3, 1994 issue

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Horse Sense

A book for naturalists or cowboys, bluegrass aristocrats or race-track touts, distinguished academics or little girls gone horse-crazy, and all readers with an interest in Equus caballus .

May 15, 1997 issue

Fighting Words

Critical views from the archive

Truth About Translation

June 23, 2016 issue

The Hard Work of Marriage

December 4, 2014 issue

After Great Expectations

January 9, 2014 issue

Letter from ‘Manhattan’

August 16, 1979 issue

April 20, 1967 issue

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Flaubert’s Planet

Do novelists, and their readers, bear some responsibility for the climate crisis?

July 21, 2022 issue

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A Hotter Russia

The cliché, avidly promoted by Moscow, is that Russia will be a relative winner in climate change, but a new book argues that the country will find itself in trouble.

June 23, 2022 issue

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Reasons for Concern

The IPCC’s latest report, with warnings for supply chains and food security, may be the most suspense-filled document in human history.

March 9, 2022

From the Archives

Books and Bookstores

Feminism & Shakespeare and Company

November 18, 2019

The Lost Pleasure of Browsing

October 13, 2009

Who Would Dare?

March 22, 2011

The Last Book Sale

August 17, 2012

The Books We’ve Lost

August 13, 2013

Maestro of the Strand

January 4, 2018

the new york review of books classics

The Mindsnatchers

Misleading optical effects, half-waking dreams, sleep paralysis, tricks of memory, paranoid delusions, temporal lobe lesions, intoxication, fraud, and faddism are abundantly familiar to us, whereas the UFO thesis flouts the known laws of nature at every turn.

June 25, 1998 issue

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A Close Encounter

So we arrive at Francis Crick’s directed panspermia hypothesis: a few billion years ago, a technically advanced extraterrestrial civilization sent a rocket carrying a diversity of bacteria to Earth. The rocket discharged its cargo into the primeval soup, where the tiny creatures were fruitful and multiplied.

December 3, 1981 issue

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The Third Coming

“For those who cannot believe in the Second Coming, or the Messianic hopes of orthodox Judaism, there are the UFOs! If the earth is being visited by extraterrestrials, surely the aliens must be friendly or by now we would have learned otherwise.”

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Sharing the Universe

With the advent of radioastronomy, the scope of investigations of outer space has been enormously widened as the strange music of incredibly remote spheres keeps pouring into steerable dishes and saucers of all kinds and sizes.

February 1, 1963 issue

Food for Thought

The Noble Fish

February 9, 2022

A Taste of Home

November 24, 2021

Honing My Knife Skills

March 13, 2021

My Quarantine: Savoring the Ramen Western

May 8, 2020

The Empress of Ice Cream

April 4, 1996 issue

Eating Olives at the End of the World

April 12, 2020

A migrant child looking through the US-Mexico border fence, Tijuana, November 2018

The Lie of American Asylum

Three new books offer searing portraits of the people affected by family separations and the criminalization of asylum in the Trump era.

November 5, 2020 issue

Workers from a Koch Foods plant being taken away by ICE agents during a raid, Morton, Mississippi, August 7, 2019

Deportation Nation

The deportation system held sway over immigrant communities long before Trump became president, but under his direction it has become even more far-reaching, arbitrary, and cruel.

October 8, 2020 issue

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Stacker

50 iconic books that are set in New York

Posted: February 24, 2024 | Last updated: February 25, 2024

<p>Every state has its hallmark writers. Mississippi has William Faulkner and his incomparable (fictional) Yoknapatawpha County and Missouri can lay claim to Mark Twain. The state of Maine is gifted with Pulitzer winner Richard Russo and horror icon Stephen King. Rural Pennsylvania is the playground of the much-heralded (and occasionally maligned) John Updike, and when many bibliophiles think of New Jersey, they also think of Richard Ford's series of novels featuring recurring Everyman character Frank Bascombe. Illinois can lay claim to William Maxwell, Sandra Cisneros, and Adam Langer, among numerous others. And what reader can think of Washington State without contending with the sparkle-vampire yarns of Stephanie Meyer?</p><p>What makes authors like these inextricably associated with a particular state is not simply the matter of their having been born there or choosing to live there. The connection, from a writerly standpoint, is deeper than that—their work, nearly all of it, is set in "their" state.</p><p>Of course, there are certainly exceptions. Whether a writer sets a tale in the town where they went to college or spent part of their childhood—like Donna Tartt's "The Secret History" and its New England arts school setting and the almost-factual small town of Jo Ann Beard's "In Zanesville," respectively—or crafts a story that follows a social or political theme to a location they know little about but lay narrative claim to anyway, the world is rife with books known, loved, and respected that also capture the essence of place—books where setting itself is one of the strongest characters.</p><p><a href="https://www.stacker.com/new-york/">Stacker</a> compiled a list of books set in New York from <a href="https://goodreads.com/">Goodreads</a>. Whether you're looking for a good read set in the state you call home, or you're looking to expand your curiosity with a writer you're already familiar with, we've got you covered.</p>

Books set in New York

Every state has its hallmark writers. Mississippi has William Faulkner and his incomparable (fictional) Yoknapatawpha County and Missouri can lay claim to Mark Twain. The state of Maine is gifted with Pulitzer winner Richard Russo and horror icon Stephen King. Rural Pennsylvania is the playground of the much-heralded (and occasionally maligned) John Updike, and when many bibliophiles think of New Jersey, they also think of Richard Ford's series of novels featuring recurring Everyman character Frank Bascombe. Illinois can lay claim to William Maxwell, Sandra Cisneros, and Adam Langer, among numerous others. And what reader can think of Washington State without contending with the sparkle-vampire yarns of Stephanie Meyer?

What makes authors like these inextricably associated with a particular state is not simply the matter of their having been born there or choosing to live there. The connection, from a writerly standpoint, is deeper than that—their work, nearly all of it, is set in "their" state.

Of course, there are certainly exceptions. Whether a writer sets a tale in the town where they went to college or spent part of their childhood—like Donna Tartt's "The Secret History" and its New England arts school setting and the almost-factual small town of Jo Ann Beard's "In Zanesville," respectively—or crafts a story that follows a social or political theme to a location they know little about but lay narrative claim to anyway, the world is rife with books known, loved, and respected that also capture the essence of place—books where setting itself is one of the strongest characters.

Stacker compiled a list of books set in New York from Goodreads . Whether you're looking for a good read set in the state you call home, or you're looking to expand your curiosity with a writer you're already familiar with, we've got you covered.

<p>- Rating: 3.93 (4.6 million ratings)<br> - Author: F. Scott Fitzgerald<br> - Published: April 10, 1925<br> - Genres: Classics, Fiction, School, Historical Fiction<br> - <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4671.The_Great_Gatsby">Read more on Goodreads</a></p>

The Great Gatsby

- Rating: 3.93 (4.6 million ratings) - Author: F. Scott Fitzgerald - Published: April 10, 1925 - Genres: Classics, Fiction, School, Historical Fiction - Read more on Goodreads

<p>- Rating: 4.28 (429,814 ratings)<br> - Author: Betty Smith<br> - Published: August 18, 1943<br> - Genres: Classics, Fiction, Historical Fiction, Young Adult<br> - <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/14891.A_Tree_Grows_in_Brooklyn">Read more on Goodreads</a></p>

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

- Rating: 4.28 (429,814 ratings) - Author: Betty Smith - Published: August 18, 1943 - Genres: Classics, Fiction, Historical Fiction, Young Adult - Read more on Goodreads

<p>- Rating: 4.05 (166,830 ratings)<br> - Author: Caleb Carr<br> - Published: March 15, 1994<br> - Genres: Historical Fiction, Mystery, Fiction, Thriller<br> - <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40024.The_Alienist">Read more on Goodreads</a></p>

The Alienist (Dr. Laszlo Kreizler, #1)

- Rating: 4.05 (166,830 ratings) - Author: Caleb Carr - Published: March 15, 1994 - Genres: Historical Fiction, Mystery, Fiction, Thriller - Read more on Goodreads

<p>- Rating: 3.81 (3.2 million ratings)<br> - Author: J.D. Salinger<br> - Published: January 1, 1951<br> - Genres: Classics, Fiction, Young Adult, Literature<br> - <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5107.The_Catcher_in_the_Rye">Read more on Goodreads</a></p>

The Catcher in the Rye

- Rating: 3.81 (3.2 million ratings) - Author: J.D. Salinger - Published: January 1, 1951 - Genres: Classics, Fiction, Young Adult, Literature - Read more on Goodreads

<p>- Rating: 3.83 (29,257 ratings)<br> - Author: Meg Cabot<br> - Published: January 6, 2004<br> - Genres: Chick Lit, Romance, Fiction, Contemporary<br> - <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/93723.Boy_Meets_Girl">Read more on Goodreads</a></p>

Boy Meets Girl (Boy, #2)

- Rating: 3.83 (29,257 ratings) - Author: Meg Cabot - Published: January 6, 2004 - Genres: Chick Lit, Romance, Fiction, Contemporary - Read more on Goodreads

<p>- Rating: 4.37 (384,223 ratings)<br> - Author: Mario Puzo<br> - Published: March 10, 1969<br> - Genres: Fiction, Classics, Crime, Thriller<br> - <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22034.The_Godfather">Read more on Goodreads</a></p>

The Godfather (The Godfather, #1)

- Rating: 4.37 (384,223 ratings) - Author: Mario Puzo - Published: March 10, 1969 - Genres: Fiction, Classics, Crime, Thriller - Read more on Goodreads

<p>- Rating: 4.10 (89,831 ratings)<br> - Author: O. Henry<br> - Published: December 10, 1905<br> - Genres: Classics, Short Stories, Fiction, Christmas<br> - <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/143534.The_Gift_of_the_Magi">Read more on Goodreads</a></p>

The Gift of the Magi

- Rating: 4.10 (89,831 ratings) - Author: O. Henry - Published: December 10, 1905 - Genres: Classics, Short Stories, Fiction, Christmas - Read more on Goodreads

<p>- Rating: 3.89 (41,379 ratings)<br> - Author: E.L. Doctorow<br> - Published: January 1, 1975<br> - Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Classics, Novels<br> - <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/175675.Ragtime">Read more on Goodreads</a></p>

- Rating: 3.89 (41,379 ratings) - Author: E.L. Doctorow - Published: January 1, 1975 - Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Classics, Novels - Read more on Goodreads

<p>- Rating: 3.90 (211,843 ratings)<br> - Author: Stephen King<br> - Published: September 29, 1980<br> - Genres: Horror, Fiction, Thriller, Science Fiction<br> - <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/233667.Firestarter">Read more on Goodreads</a></p>

Firestarter

- Rating: 3.90 (211,843 ratings) - Author: Stephen King - Published: September 29, 1980 - Genres: Horror, Fiction, Thriller, Science Fiction - Read more on Goodreads

<p>- Rating: 4.18 (580,501 ratings)<br> - Author: Daniel Keyes<br> - Published: April 1, 1959<br> - Genres: Fiction, Classics, Science Fiction, Young Adult<br> - <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18373.Flowers_for_Algernon">Read more on Goodreads</a></p>

Flowers for Algernon

- Rating: 4.18 (580,501 ratings) - Author: Daniel Keyes - Published: April 1, 1959 - Genres: Fiction, Classics, Science Fiction, Young Adult - Read more on Goodreads

<p>- Rating: 4.15 (202,894 ratings)<br> - Author: E.L. Konigsburg<br> - Published: January 1, 1967<br> - Genres: Fiction, Childrens, Young Adult, Middle Grade<br> - <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3980.From_the_Mixed_Up_Files_of_Mrs_Basil_E_Frankweiler">Read more on Goodreads</a></p>

From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler

- Rating: 4.15 (202,894 ratings) - Author: E.L. Konigsburg - Published: January 1, 1967 - Genres: Fiction, Childrens, Young Adult, Middle Grade - Read more on Goodreads

<p>- Rating: 3.92 (33,071 ratings)<br> - Author: Dashiell Hammett<br> - Published: January 1, 1934<br> - Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Classics, Crime<br> - <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/80616.The_Thin_Man">Read more on Goodreads</a></p>

The Thin Man

- Rating: 3.92 (33,071 ratings) - Author: Dashiell Hammett - Published: January 1, 1934 - Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Classics, Crime - Read more on Goodreads

<p>- Rating: 3.97 (406,276 ratings)<br> - Author: Jonathan Safran Foer<br> - Published: January 1, 2005<br> - Genres: Fiction, Contemporary, Historical Fiction, Novels<br> - <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4588.Extremely_Loud_Incredibly_Close">Read more on Goodreads</a></p>

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close

- Rating: 3.97 (406,276 ratings) - Author: Jonathan Safran Foer - Published: January 1, 2005 - Genres: Fiction, Contemporary, Historical Fiction, Novels - Read more on Goodreads

<p>- Rating: 3.96 (91,755 ratings)<br> - Author: Edith Wharton<br> - Published: October 14, 1905<br> - Genres: Classics, Fiction, Historical Fiction, Literature<br> - <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17728.The_House_of_Mirth">Read more on Goodreads</a></p>

The House of Mirth

- Rating: 3.96 (91,755 ratings) - Author: Edith Wharton - Published: October 14, 1905 - Genres: Classics, Fiction, Historical Fiction, Literature - Read more on Goodreads

<p>- Rating: 4.07 (2,443 ratings)<br> - Author: Valentine Davies<br> - Published: January 1, 1947<br> - Genres: Christmas, Fiction, Classics, Holiday<br> - <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/375108.Miracle_on_34th_Street">Read more on Goodreads</a></p>

Miracle on 34th Street

- Rating: 4.07 (2,443 ratings) - Author: Valentine Davies - Published: January 1, 1947 - Genres: Christmas, Fiction, Classics, Holiday - Read more on Goodreads

<p>- Rating: 3.86 (240,174 ratings)<br> - Author: Truman Capote<br> - Published: October 28, 1958<br> - Genres: Classics, Short Stories, Romance, Literature<br> - <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/251688.Breakfast_at_Tiffany_s_and_Three_Stories">Read more on Goodreads</a></p>

Breakfast at Tiffany's and Three Stories

- Rating: 3.86 (240,174 ratings) - Author: Truman Capote - Published: October 28, 1958 - Genres: Classics, Short Stories, Romance, Literature - Read more on Goodreads

<p>- Rating: 3.67 (14,779 ratings)<br> - Author: Mary McCarthy<br> - Published: January 1, 1963<br> - Genres: Fiction, Classics, Historical Fiction, Novels<br> - <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/387348.The_Group">Read more on Goodreads</a></p>

- Rating: 3.67 (14,779 ratings) - Author: Mary McCarthy - Published: January 1, 1963 - Genres: Fiction, Classics, Historical Fiction, Novels - Read more on Goodreads

<p>- Rating: 3.72 (62,502 ratings)<br> - Author: Washington Irving<br> - Published: January 1, 1820<br> - Genres: Classics, Horror, Fiction, Short Stories<br> - <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/93261.The_Legend_of_Sleepy_Hollow">Read more on Goodreads</a></p>

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

- Rating: 3.72 (62,502 ratings) - Author: Washington Irving - Published: January 1, 1820 - Genres: Classics, Horror, Fiction, Short Stories - Read more on Goodreads

<p>- Rating: 3.90 (119,838 ratings)<br> - Author: E.B. White<br> - Published: January 1, 1945<br> - Genres: Childrens, Classics, Fiction, Fantasy<br> - <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/138959.Stuart_Little">Read more on Goodreads</a></p>

Stuart Little

- Rating: 3.90 (119,838 ratings) - Author: E.B. White - Published: January 1, 1945 - Genres: Childrens, Classics, Fiction, Fantasy - Read more on Goodreads

<p>- Rating: 4.03 (63,545 ratings)<br> - Author: George Selden<br> - Published: January 1, 1960<br> - Genres: Childrens, Fiction, Classics, Fantasy<br> - <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/24384.The_Cricket_in_Times_Square">Read more on Goodreads</a></p>

The Cricket in Times Square (Chester Cricket and His Friends, #1)

- Rating: 4.03 (63,545 ratings) - Author: George Selden - Published: January 1, 1960 - Genres: Childrens, Fiction, Classics, Fantasy - Read more on Goodreads

<p>- Rating: 3.80 (247,375 ratings)<br> - Author: Meg Cabot<br> - Published: September 19, 2000<br> - Genres: Young Adult, Romance, Fiction, Contemporary<br> - <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/568617.The_Princess_Diaries">Read more on Goodreads</a></p>

The Princess Diaries (The Princess Diaries, #1)

- Rating: 3.80 (247,375 ratings) - Author: Meg Cabot - Published: September 19, 2000 - Genres: Young Adult, Romance, Fiction, Contemporary - Read more on Goodreads

<p>- Rating: 3.55 (212,733 ratings)<br> - Author: Arthur Miller<br> - Published: January 1, 1949<br> - Genres: Classics, Plays, Fiction, Drama<br> - <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12898.Death_of_a_Salesman">Read more on Goodreads</a></p>

Death of a Salesman

- Rating: 3.55 (212,733 ratings) - Author: Arthur Miller - Published: January 1, 1949 - Genres: Classics, Plays, Fiction, Drama - Read more on Goodreads

<p>- Rating: 4.29 (2.5 million ratings)<br> - Author: Rick Riordan<br> - Published: June 28, 2005<br> - Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult, Mythology, Fiction<br> - <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28187.The_Lightning_Thief">Read more on Goodreads</a></p>

The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, #1)

- Rating: 4.29 (2.5 million ratings) - Author: Rick Riordan - Published: June 28, 2005 - Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult, Mythology, Fiction - Read more on Goodreads

<p>- Rating: 3.96 (157,903 ratings)<br> - Author: Edith Wharton<br> - Published: October 1, 1920<br> - Genres: Classics, Fiction, Historical Fiction, Romance<br> - <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/53835.The_Age_of_Innocence">Read more on Goodreads</a></p>

The Age of Innocence

- Rating: 3.96 (157,903 ratings) - Author: Edith Wharton - Published: October 1, 1920 - Genres: Classics, Fiction, Historical Fiction, Romance - Read more on Goodreads

<p>- Rating: 4.08 (1.9 million ratings)<br> - Author: Cassandra Clare<br> - Published: May 27, 2007<br> - Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult, Paranormal, Romance<br> - <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/256683.City_of_Bones">Read more on Goodreads</a></p>

City of Bones (The Mortal Instruments, #1)

- Rating: 4.08 (1.9 million ratings) - Author: Cassandra Clare - Published: May 27, 2007 - Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult, Paranormal, Romance - Read more on Goodreads

<p>- Rating: 3.62 (14,323 ratings)<br> - Author: Washington Irving<br> - Published: January 1, 1819<br> - Genres: Classics, Short Stories, Fiction, Fantasy<br> - <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/462182.Rip_Van_Winkle">Read more on Goodreads</a></p>

Rip Van Winkle

- Rating: 3.62 (14,323 ratings) - Author: Washington Irving - Published: January 1, 1819 - Genres: Classics, Short Stories, Fiction, Fantasy - Read more on Goodreads

<p>- Rating: 3.76 (9,378 ratings)<br> - Author: Alice Hoffman<br> - Published: January 1, 1990<br> - Genres: Fiction, Magical Realism, Historical Fiction, Fantasy<br> - <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/163815.Seventh_Heaven">Read more on Goodreads</a></p>

Seventh Heaven

- Rating: 3.76 (9,378 ratings) - Author: Alice Hoffman - Published: January 1, 1990 - Genres: Fiction, Magical Realism, Historical Fiction, Fantasy - Read more on Goodreads

<p>- Rating: 3.40 (2,518 ratings)<br> - Author: Nicole Mary Kelby<br> - Published: April 10, 2014<br> - Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Historical, Fashion<br> - <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/21258630-the-pink-suit">Read more on Goodreads</a></p>

The Pink Suit

- Rating: 3.40 (2,518 ratings) - Author: Nicole Mary Kelby - Published: April 10, 2014 - Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Historical, Fashion - Read more on Goodreads

<p>- Rating: 3.86 (27,526 ratings)<br> - Author: Toni Morrison<br> - Published: January 1, 1992<br> - Genres: Fiction, Classics, Historical Fiction, African American<br> - <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11341.Jazz">Read more on Goodreads</a></p>

- Rating: 3.86 (27,526 ratings) - Author: Toni Morrison - Published: January 1, 1992 - Genres: Fiction, Classics, Historical Fiction, African American - Read more on Goodreads

<p>- Rating: 3.96 (152,287 ratings)<br> - Author: Peter Benchley<br> - Published: May 6, 1974<br> - Genres: Horror, Fiction, Thriller, Classics<br> - <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/126232.Jaws">Read more on Goodreads</a></p>

Jaws (Jaws #1)

- Rating: 3.96 (152,287 ratings) - Author: Peter Benchley - Published: May 6, 1974 - Genres: Horror, Fiction, Thriller, Classics - Read more on Goodreads

<p>- Rating: 4.30 (8,040 ratings)<br> - Author: E.B. White<br> - Published: January 1, 1948<br> - Genres: Nonfiction, New York, Essays, Travel<br> - <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10814.Here_Is_New_York">Read more on Goodreads</a></p>

Here Is New York

- Rating: 4.30 (8,040 ratings) - Author: E.B. White - Published: January 1, 1948 - Genres: Nonfiction, New York, Essays, Travel - Read more on Goodreads

<p>- Rating: 4.16 (37,346 ratings)<br> - Author: Edward Rutherfurd<br> - Published: September 3, 2009<br> - Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Historical, New York<br> - <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8258519-new-york">Read more on Goodreads</a></p>

- Rating: 4.16 (37,346 ratings) - Author: Edward Rutherfurd - Published: September 3, 2009 - Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Historical, New York - Read more on Goodreads

<p>- Rating: 4.07 (63,648 ratings)<br> - Author: Laura Ingalls Wilder<br> - Published: January 1, 1933<br> - Genres: Classics, Historical Fiction, Childrens, Fiction<br> - <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8252.Farmer_Boy">Read more on Goodreads</a></p>

Farmer Boy (Little House, #2)

- Rating: 4.07 (63,648 ratings) - Author: Laura Ingalls Wilder - Published: January 1, 1933 - Genres: Classics, Historical Fiction, Childrens, Fiction - Read more on Goodreads

<p>- Rating: 4.07 (71,247 ratings)<br> - Author: Jean Craighead George<br> - Published: January 1, 1959<br> - Genres: Fiction, Young Adult, Classics, Childrens<br> - <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/41667.My_Side_of_the_Mountain">Read more on Goodreads</a></p>

My Side of the Mountain (Mountain, #1)

- Rating: 4.07 (71,247 ratings) - Author: Jean Craighead George - Published: January 1, 1959 - Genres: Fiction, Young Adult, Classics, Childrens - Read more on Goodreads

<p>- Rating: 4.16 (56,122 ratings)<br> - Author: Brian Selznick<br> - Published: September 13, 2011<br> - Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Middle Grade, Young Adult<br> - <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10128428-wonderstruck">Read more on Goodreads</a></p>

Wonderstruck

- Rating: 4.16 (56,122 ratings) - Author: Brian Selznick - Published: September 13, 2011 - Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Middle Grade, Young Adult - Read more on Goodreads

<p>- Rating: 3.85 (2,105 ratings)<br> - Author: Jenna Blum<br> - Published: July 1, 2014<br> - Genres: Historical Fiction, Short Stories, Fiction, World War II<br> - <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18693913-grand-central">Read more on Goodreads</a></p>

Grand Central: Original Stories of Postwar Love and Reunion

- Rating: 3.85 (2,105 ratings) - Author: Jenna Blum - Published: July 1, 2014 - Genres: Historical Fiction, Short Stories, Fiction, World War II - Read more on Goodreads

<p>- Rating: 3.29 (2,478 ratings)<br> - Author: Jean Zimmerman<br> - Published: June 19, 2012<br> - Genres: Historical Fiction, Mystery, Fiction, Historical<br> - <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12999143-the-orphanmaster">Read more on Goodreads</a></p>

The Orphanmaster

- Rating: 3.29 (2,478 ratings) - Author: Jean Zimmerman - Published: June 19, 2012 - Genres: Historical Fiction, Mystery, Fiction, Historical - Read more on Goodreads

<p>- Rating: 4.32 (46,978 ratings)<br> - Author: Kacen Callender<br> - Published: May 5, 2020<br> - Genres: LGBT, Young Adult, Contemporary, Romance<br> - <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/51931067-felix-ever-after">Read more on Goodreads</a></p>

Felix Ever After

- Rating: 4.32 (46,978 ratings) - Author: Kacen Callender - Published: May 5, 2020 - Genres: LGBT, Young Adult, Contemporary, Romance - Read more on Goodreads

<p>- Rating: 3.87 (15,434 ratings)<br> - Author: Lyndsay Faye<br> - Published: March 15, 2012<br> - Genres: Historical Fiction, Mystery, Fiction, Historical<br> - <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15810132-the-gods-of-gotham">Read more on Goodreads</a></p>

The Gods of Gotham (Timothy Wilde, #1)

- Rating: 3.87 (15,434 ratings) - Author: Lyndsay Faye - Published: March 15, 2012 - Genres: Historical Fiction, Mystery, Fiction, Historical - Read more on Goodreads

<p>- Rating: 4.22 (240,240 ratings)<br> - Author: Stephen King<br> - Published: May 1, 1987<br> - Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Horror, Science Fiction<br> - <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5094.The_Drawing_of_the_Three">Read more on Goodreads</a></p>

The Drawing of the Three

- Rating: 4.22 (240,240 ratings) - Author: Stephen King - Published: May 1, 1987 - Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Horror, Science Fiction - Read more on Goodreads

<p>- Rating: 4.07 (52,816 ratings)<br> - Author: Susan Meissner<br> - Published: February 4, 2014<br> - Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Historical, Romance<br> - <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18114142-a-fall-of-marigolds">Read more on Goodreads</a></p>

A Fall of Marigolds

- Rating: 4.07 (52,816 ratings) - Author: Susan Meissner - Published: February 4, 2014 - Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Historical, Romance - Read more on Goodreads

<p>- Rating: 4.03 (60,985 ratings)<br> - Author: James Baldwin<br> - Published: May 18, 1953<br> - Genres: Fiction, Classics, African American, Race<br> - <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17143.Go_Tell_It_on_the_Mountain">Read more on Goodreads</a></p>

Go Tell It on the Mountain

- Rating: 4.03 (60,985 ratings) - Author: James Baldwin - Published: May 18, 1953 - Genres: Fiction, Classics, African American, Race - Read more on Goodreads

<p>- Rating: 4.18 (87,252 ratings)<br> - Author: William Styron<br> - Published: January 1, 1979<br> - Genres: Fiction, Classics, Historical Fiction, Holocaust<br> - <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/228560.Sophie_s_Choice">Read more on Goodreads</a></p>

Sophie's Choice

- Rating: 4.18 (87,252 ratings) - Author: William Styron - Published: January 1, 1979 - Genres: Fiction, Classics, Historical Fiction, Holocaust - Read more on Goodreads

<p>- Rating: 3.83 (8,347 ratings)<br> - Author: Anna Quindlen<br> - Published: April 9, 1991<br> - Genres: Fiction, Contemporary, Chick Lit, Novels<br> - <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/77478.Object_Lessons">Read more on Goodreads</a></p>

Object Lessons

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<p>- Rating: 3.89 (28,852 ratings)<br> - Author: Edwidge Danticat<br> - Published: April 1, 1994<br> - Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Contemporary, Novels<br> - <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5186.Breath_Eyes_Memory">Read more on Goodreads</a></p>

Breath, Eyes, Memory

- Rating: 3.89 (28,852 ratings) - Author: Edwidge Danticat - Published: April 1, 1994 - Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Contemporary, Novels - Read more on Goodreads

<p>- Rating: 4.30 (20,892 ratings)<br> - Author: James Baldwin<br> - Published: May 1, 1962<br> - Genres: Fiction, Classics, LGBT, Queer<br> - <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/38474.Another_Country">Read more on Goodreads</a></p>

Another Country

- Rating: 4.30 (20,892 ratings) - Author: James Baldwin - Published: May 1, 1962 - Genres: Fiction, Classics, LGBT, Queer - Read more on Goodreads

<p>- Rating: 4.07 (194,884 ratings)<br> - Author: Amor Towles<br> - Published: July 26, 2011<br> - Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Historical, New York<br> - <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11523279-rules-of-civility">Read more on Goodreads</a></p>

Rules of Civility

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Size 12 Is Not Fat (Heather Wells, #1)

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  1. NYRB Classics

    NYRB Classics - New York Review Books The NYRB Classics series is dedicated to publishing an eclectic mix of fiction and nonfiction from different eras and times and of various sorts. Many of these titles are works in translation and almost all feature an introduction by an outstanding writer, scholar, or critic of our day. Filter: More filters

  2. New York Review Books

    Listopia New York Review Books - Classics The NYRB Classics series is designedly and determinedly exploratory and eclectic, a mix of fiction and non-fiction from different eras and times and of various sorts.

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    John Banville. 'Live All You Can'. The early lives of Emerson, Thoreau, and William James were marked by the loss of loved ones, and in their reflections one finds a characteristically nineteenth-century American sense of resilience and regeneration. March 7, 2024 issue. Edward Mendelson.

  4. Why Read the Classics?

    A classic is a book that has never finished saying what it has to say. October 9, 1986 issue Submit a letter: Email us [email protected] Let us begin with a few suggested definitions. 1) The classics are the books of which we usually hear people say: "I am rereading…" and never "I am reading…."

  5. The NYRB Classics Book Club

    "NYRB has made a specialty of rescuing and reviving all kinds of ignored or forgotten works," said The New York Times, "in English or in translation, fiction and nonfiction, by writers renowned and obscure." Each month, our editors select a book from our newest titles, and that book is sent to club members as soon as it is available.

  6. New York Review Books

    Join NYRB Classics Book Club Is there a book that you'd like to see back in print, or that you think we should consider for one of our series? Let us know! Tell us about it The homepage of New York Review Books.

  7. Charles Frazier Wants You to Wait Before Reading the Classics

    The film, with its handful of Oscar nominations, has refocused attention on the novel, a satire of the literary world and its racial biases. Kaveh Akbar had a raging addiction and little reason to ...

  8. Edwin Frank: 'The best art is often powerfully irrelevant'

    The head of the New York Review of Books Classics series on how and why old books matter and the joys of bringing dead authors back to life. E dwin Frank is a poet and the founder and editorial ...

  9. 8 NYRB Classic Books That Are Lost Masterpieces

    First launched in 1999, the New York Review Books Classics series has famously come to be known for its unearthing of lost masterpieces. The series is comprised of incredible books that somehow slipped through the cracks of time, only to be rediscovered by NYRB's obsessive editors and re-published in tidy, color-coded volumes.

  10. NYRB Classics (New York Review Books)

    New York, New York Review Books, 1999 (NYRB Classics). Paperback. Publisher's blurb: "Richard Hughes's celebrated short novel is a masterpiece of concentrated narrative. Its dreamlike action begins among the decayed plantation houses and overwhelming natural abundance of late nineteenth-century Jamaica, before moving out onto the high seas ...

  11. Thinking Person's Book Series Also Looks Great on Instagram

    An offshoot of the literary magazine The New York Review of Books, the NYRB Classics imprint specializes in reissuing volumes that have fallen out of print or been otherwise neglected, such as J ...

  12. New York Review Books (NYRB) Classics: A Guide

    I've been polling others. flag All Votes Add Books To This List 35 books · 20 voters · list created August 26th, 2013 by Rebecca (votes) . Tags: classics, nyrb 2 likes · Like Lists are re-scored approximately every 5 minutes. People Who Voted On This List (20) Rebecca 5519 books 474 friends Lauren 2073 books 135 friends Ayreon 2068 books

  13. 9 New Books We Recommend This Week

    In fiction, we recommend debuts from DéLana R.A. Dameron, Alexander Sammartino and Rebecca K Reilly, alongside new novels by Cormac James, Ashley Elston and Kristin Hannah. Happy reading ...

  14. NYRB Classics

    The NYRB Classics series is dedicated to publishing an eclectic mix of fiction and nonfiction from different eras and times and of various sorts. Many of these titles are works in translation and almost all feature an introduction by an outstanding writer, scholar, or critic of our day.

  15. New York Review Books

    [1] Series and collections NYRB Classics is a series of fiction and non-fiction works for all ages and from around the world. Since its first volume, a 1999 reissue of Richard Hughes 's 1929 novel A High Wind in Jamaica, NYRB Classics has published hundreds of titles.

  16. Table of Contents

    Janet Malcolm (1934-2021) Janet Malcolm's journalism focused on the contradictory motives, confused allegiances, and hidden drives of human life. Ben Lerner The Lights a poem Mark O'Connell Uncanny Planet A new collection of essays by Nathaniel Rich argues that there is no going back to whatever might be meant by "nature."

  17. 5 Overlooked Nonfiction New York Review of Books Classics

    For 20 years, The New York Review of Books's publishing division, NYRB Classics being its most famous imprint, has offered a steady supply of under-read and almost-forgotten literary gems to curious readers.While novels like Stoner (perhaps the imprint's biggest success) and The Invention of Morel have made the biggest splashes, the library's nonfiction has been the biggest draw for ...

  18. The New York Review of Books

    The New York Review of Books (or NYREV or NYRB) is a semi-monthly magazine [2] with articles on literature, culture, economics, science and current affairs. Published in New York City, it is inspired by the idea that the discussion of important books is an indispensable literary activity.

  19. New York Review Books

    New York Review Books, New York, NY. 214,495 likes · 66 talking about this. New York Review Books publishes the NYRB Classics, NYR Children's Collection, NYRB Poets, and NYR Comics series of books.

  20. About

    About New York Review Books publishes NYRB Classics, NYRB Kids, New York Review Comics, and NYRB Poets. Download our latest catalogs here. New York Review Books The New York Times has called The New York Review of Books "the country's most successful intellectual journal."

  21. The 30 Best Classic Novels Everyone Should Read

    Chinua Achebe, a Nigerian-born novelist and poet, poses at his home on the campus of Bard College in ...[+] Annandale-on-Hudson, N.Y., where he was a professor. He wrote one of the best classic ...

  22. New York Review Of Books Classics Shelf

    New York Review Of Books Classics genre: new releases and popular books, including Renoir, My Father by Jean Renoir, Moravagine by Blaise Cendrars, Alien...

  23. NYRB Classics

    2 3 … 5 The NYRB Classics series is dedicated to publishing an eclectic mix of fiction and nonfiction from different eras and times and of various sorts. Many of these titles are works in translation and almost all feature an introduction by an outstanding writer, scholar, or critic of our day.

  24. Our 60th Anniversary

    The New York Review Turns Sixty October 12, 2023 Emily Greenhouse, interviewed by Daniel Drake An Act of Admiration: Editing The New York Review "That is my job: to reach out to writers whose minds seem acutely alive to the world around us, to ask them to examine, ransack, and record." October 12, 2023 The Editors Where the Elite Meet to Mate

  25. 50 iconic books that are set in New York

    - Rating: 4.28 (429,814 ratings) - Author: Betty Smith - Published: August 18, 1943 - Genres: Classics, Fiction, Historical Fiction, Young Adult - Read more on Goodreads

  26. NYRB Classics

    26 Shopping for someone else but not sure what to give them? Give them the gift of choice with a New York Review Books Gift Card. Gift Cards A membership for yourself or as a gift for a special reader will promise a year of good reading.