The Novel Today (Summer)

Discuss major new work by today’s top writers, including emerging novelists, award-winners, and established favorites, all of whom are central to today's cultural conversation. We will investigate a variety of inventive narrative strategies, explore the psychology of numerous fascinating characters, and examine important topics within a context of changing times, changing lives and a changing world.  We will explore  tales of two cities, New York and Los Angeles, featuring a noir intrigue involving the making of Gone with the Wind; an old man and a mysterious horse  in the high desert of central Nevada; kindred spirits, a missing astronomer, and what’s written in the stars in Essex, England; a famous fraud and a sharp, smart woman in London; a bat-mitzvah, a Christ­mas play, an inter­faith fam­i­ly, and a young girl’s coming of age in northern Italy; and six cosmonauts traveling through space as they behold and record our blue planet. Readings: Amor Towles, Table for Two; Willy Vlautin, The Horse; Sarah Perry, Enlightenment; Zadie Smith, The Fraud;  AB Yehoshua, The Only Daughter; Samantha Harvey, Orbital. Students should read Samantha Harvey,'s Orbital for the first class.