Maxima Library

This yarn takes place in the suburbs of a giant city, and its hero is Edison Lo. There he is, in his thirties, in the middle of things! In Chicago they're coming off their night shift, in Tokyo they're asleep — that's what's happening elsewhere in the world when Edison wakes up. Our hero has had the good education, and also the good job. Together with his wife, Candy, he lives at home with his parents. In other words, the juggernaut of meaning is very much not parked heavily on Edison's lawn. But then the lurid overtakes him and the form it chooses is Park.

At school and university, Park was Edison's best friend, until Park moved out east. For a decade, they never saw each other. And now, in the manner of a myth or cartoon series, Park has returned, narcotic and neurotic — just when Edison, like everyone else, has become unemployed. This reunion begins a spritely chain of events which to Ed feels like one long slide. This quick and chancy tale is full of high jinks and low tricks, complete with one orgy, one brothel and the disposal of a body, even if its heroes still try to keep up natty crosstalk and one-liners. But meanwhile something much larger might be going on. For if you start to notice minute doubles and repeats, or wonder if what you took as a literary kink might in fact be a kink of reality, well perhaps, like maybe, that shouldn't be so much of a surprise.

Politics is about: a) a threesome; b) politics.

Moshe loves Nana. But love can be difficult — especially if you want to be kind. And Moshe and Nana want to be kind to someone else.

They want to be kind to their best friend, Anjali.

Politics explores crucial problems of sexual etiquette. What should the sleeping arrangements be in a ménage-à-trois? Is it polite to read while two people have sex beside you? Is it permissible to be jealous?

An anthology of stories edited by Zadie Smith

A stellar host of writers explore the cornerstone of fiction writing: character

The Book of Other People is about character. Twenty-five or so outstanding writers have been asked by Zadie Smith to make up a fictional character. By any measure, creating character is at the heart of the fictional enterprise, and this book concentrates on writers who share a talent for making something recognizably human out of words (and, in the case of the graphic novelists, pictures). But the purpose of the book is variety: straight "realism"-if such a thing exists-is not the point. There are as many ways to create character as there are writers, and this anthology features a rich assortment of exceptional examples.

The writers featured in The Book of Other People include:

Aleksandar Hemon

Nick Hornby

Hari Kunzru

Toby Litt

David Mitchell

George Saunders

Colm Tóibín

Chris Ware, and more.