Cyberfiction pioneer Bruce Sterling is the author of Tomorrow Now and a contributing editor for Wired magazine. His latest novel, The Zenith Angle, has just been published.
Cosmicomics by Italo Calvino (Harvest, $13). Makes me wonder why all science-fiction books aren’t a series of arch, witty jokes about the universe. This unique cultural product must have required any number of trips down to the Oulipo group to chat about cosmology. Molto pensato, dude.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
The Elephant Vanishes by Haruki Murakami (Vintage, $14). Disciplined, productive, insightful, and profoundly strange, Murakami can churn out novels and journalism with impressive facility. I like him best in the short form, where his globally minded Nipponese transrealism makes its point and then allows the awe-struck reader some time to mentally recover.
A Werewolf Problem in Central Russia by Victor Pelevin (New Directions, $13). Young Russian writer Victor Pelevin hasn’t always been well served by his translators, but these short stories are so irretrievably weird that they glow like the bears must glow in the woods around Chernobyl.
My Name Is Red by Orhan Pamuk (Vintage, $15). All of Pamuk’s books involve identity games and orgiastic, Borgesian head tripping, but My Name Is Red ups the ante by also being a 16th-century Ottoman murder mystery, an anguished romance, and an art-historical interpretation of royal miniature painting. This man deserves the Nobel.
Fantastics and Other Fancies
-
‘A legacy news brand brings a visibility of its own’Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
8 of the best ‘cozy crime’ series of all timeThe Week Recommends Murder mysteries don’t necessarily have to make us miserable, and these shows have perfected a feel-good crime formula
-
Youth revolts rattle Morocco as calls against corruption grow louderTHE EXPLAINER Snowballing controversy over World Cup construction and civic services has become a serious threat to Morocco’s political stability
-
Marisa Silver’s 6 favorite books that capture a lifetimeFeature The author recommends works by John Williams, Ian McEwan, and more
-
Lou Berney’s 6 favorite books with powerful storytellingFeature The award-winning author recommends works by Dorothy B. Hughes, James McBride, and more
-
Elizabeth Gilbert’s favorite books about women overcoming difficultiesFeature The author recommends works by Tove Jansson, Lauren Groff, and more
-
Fannie Flagg’s 6 favorite books that sparked her imaginationFeature The author recommends works by Johanna Spyri, John Steinbeck, and more
-
Jessica Francis Kane's 6 favorite books that prove less is moreFeature The author recommends works by Penelope Fitzgerald, Marie-Helene Bertino, and more
-
Keith McNally's 6 favorite books that have ambitious charactersFeature The London-born restaurateur recommends works by Leo Tolstoy, John le Carré, and more
-
Garrett Graff's 6 favorite books that shine new light on World War IIFeature The author recommends works by James D. Hornfischer, Craig L. Symonds, and more
-
Helen Schulman's 6 favorite collections of short storiesFeature The award-winning author recommends works by Raymond Carver, James Baldwin, and more
