The Novel Today (Spring)

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; vulnerable people and a parrot in pandemic New York; betrayal, revolution and Somerset Maugham in 1920s Penang; a far-right reactionary government in the south of Ireland; a mysterious man, a mysterious forest, and a mysterious nightfall; a historical novel set in the aftermath of the civil war centered on a strange man called Night Watch; the return of the complex and enigmatic Eilis Lacey,  now in Long Island but with her heart still In Ireland; a brilliant autobiographical three generation saga about a “pied noir” family left without a homeland after Algerian independence; two sisters and a big bear on San Juan Island; immigrant Indian teenage sisters, the game of squash, and the pressures and perils of winning; the  recovering alcoholic son of an Iranian immigrant and his chaotic, tragicomic search for meaning.
Readings: Tan Twan Eng, The House of Doors; Kaveh Akbar, Martyr!; Paul Lynch, Prophet Song; Jon Fosse, A Shining; Claire Messud, A Strange Eventful History; Colm Toibin, Long Island; Sigrid Nunez, The Vulnerables; Julia Phillips, Bear; Chetna Maroo, Western Lane; Jayne Anne Phillips, The Night Watch.
Students should read The Vulnerables by Sigrid Nunez for the first class.