Transcription: 'This may be the best novel you’ll read all year' Telegraph

· Granta Books
4 reviews
Ebook
112
Pages
Tools

About this ebook

A writer returns to his college town, where he is to conduct what will be the final published interview with Thomas, his ninety-year-old mentor. But after he drops his smartphone in the hotel sink, he arrives at Thomas's house with no recording device - a fact he is mysteriously unable to confess.

What unfolds from this dreamlike circumstance is both a brilliant meditation on those technologies that enrich and impoverish our connections to each other, that store and obliterate our memories, and a moving exploration of the relationships that make us who we are.
A writer returns to his college town, where he is to conduct what will be the final published interview with Thomas, his ninety-year-old mentor. But after he drops his smartphone in the hotel sink, he arrives at Thomas's house with no recording device - a fact he is mysteriously unable to confess...

Discover more

Ratings and reviews

4 reviews
Hamish Richardson
May 20, 2026
Just awful. Unstructured, no plot, no point. Why write this?
Did you find this helpful?

About the author

BEN LERNER is the author of three internationally acclaimed novels, Leaving the Atocha Station, 10:04 and The Topeka School, as well as several books of poetry and collaborations with visual artists. He has received fellowships from the Fulbright, Guggenheim, and MacArthur Foundations, and been a finalist for National Book Award in poetry and the Pulitzer Prize in fiction, among other honours. He lives in Brooklyn.
BEN LERNER is the author of three internationally acclaimed novels, Leaving the Atocha Station, 10:04 and The Topeka School, as well as several books of poetry and collaborations with visual artists. He has received fellowships from the Fulbright, Guggenheim, and MacArthur Foundations, and been a...

Rate this ebook

Tell us what you think.

Reading information

Smartphones and tablets
Install the Google Play Books app for Android and iPad/iPhone. It syncs automatically with your account and allows you to read online or offline wherever you are.
Laptops and computers
You can listen to audiobooks purchased on Google Play using your computer's web browser.
eReaders and other devices
To read on e-ink devices like Kobo eReaders, you'll need to download a file and transfer it to your device. Follow the detailed Help Center instructions to transfer the files to supported eReaders.