Set in an imaginary European city, The Passion Artist takes us into the dream-like interior world of Konrad Vost, a middle-aged widower grieving for his dead wife, devoted to his schoolgirl daughter, and obsessed with the memory and the fate of his mother, who is an inmate in the city's prison. Whe[...]

The Beetle Leg, John Hawkes's second full-length novel, was first published by New Directions in 1951. After years of underground existence, this brilliant novel is emerging as a classic of visionary writing and still remains Hawkes's only work devoted solely to American life. As a 'surrealist Weste[...]

A middle-aged Dutchman whose marriage is deteriorating is accused of committing murder while on a cruise[...]

Skipper, an ex-World War II naval Lieutenant and the narrator of "Second Skin," interweaves past and presentwhat he refers to as his "naked history"in a series of episodes that tell the story of a volatile life marked by pitiful losses, as well as a more elusive, overwhelming, joy. The past: the sui[...]