Is that how the book began for you or, what was the genesis, if not?īen Lerner: One kind of complicated thing about how my books begin is that they often begin before I know they've begun. Adam is talking to his girlfriend, Amber, in a boat, and doesn't realize that she's disappeared, and then Adam goes into the wrong lake house while he's looking for her, not realizing it isn’t Amber's until he's inside. Jill Owens: At the beginning of The Topeka School, after the brief intro about Darren, is a story that appeared as a standalone in The New Yorker, which is incredibly striking.

The Topeka School is not only a fiction for our times, but for the ages: insightful, humane, politically astute, and true.' We're thrilled to present The Topeka School as Volume 83 of Indiespensable. Maggie Nelson raves, 'This book is a prehistory of a deeply disturbing national moment, but it’s written with the kind of intelligence, insight, and searching that makes one feel well-accompanied and, in the final hour, deeply inspired.' And Hilton Als praises, 'Ben Lerner is a masterful writer who destabilizes the very notion of what a novel can achieve by making it new at every turn.

Lerner utilizes multiple perspectives and voices, including those of Adam's parents, to thoroughly investigate the history of this family and how it ties to our present moment, parsing themes of debate, masculinity, and the dissolution of language. In his newest work, The Topeka School, the main character is Adam Gordon, who is also the narrator of Lerner’s debut novel, Leaving the Atocha Station we see Adam here largely as an adolescent growing up in Topeka, Kansas, with his psychologist parents, who are part of the Foundation, an esteemed, groundbreaking psychological institute and progressive hub in a very conservative state. Ben Lerner is a critically acclaimed poet, novelist, and essayist with plenty of well-deserved accolades - he's currently a MacArthur Fellow, has been a Guggenheim Fellow and a finalist for the National Book Award, and has won the Believer Book Award and the Hayden Carruth Award, among others.

Ben lerner atocha