The Unwritten Book: An Investigation
Samantha Hunt
(Author)
Description
"One of our most interesting and bold writers . . . [offers] a characteristically wild effort that defies genre distinctions, flits from the profound to the mundane with fierce intelligence and searching restlessness, and at its best, delves deep into the recesses of the human heart with courageous abandon . . . An intoxicating blend of humor and pathos." --Priscilla Gilman, The Boston Globe
"Eerie, profound, and daring, this is a book only the inimitable Hunt could write."--Adrienne Westenfeld, Esquire
From Samantha Hunt, the award-winning author of The Dark Dark, comes The Unwritten Book, her first work of nonfiction, a genre-bending creation that explores the importance of books, the idea of haunting, and messages from beyond I carry each book I've ever read with me, just as I carry my dead--those things that aren't really there, those things that shape everything I am. A genre-bending work of nonfiction, Samantha Hunt's The Unwritten Book explores ghosts, ghost stories, and haunting, in the broadest sense of each. What is it to be haunted, to be a ghost, to die, to live, to read? Books are ghosts; reading is communion with the dead. Alcohol is a way of communing, too, as well as a way of dying. Each chapter gathers subjects that haunt: dead people, the forest, the towering library of all those books we'll never have time to read or write. Hunt, like a mad crossword puzzler, looks for patterns and clues. Through literary criticism, history, family history, and memoir, inspired by W. G. Sebald, James Joyce, Ali Smith, Toni Morrison, William Faulkner, and many others, Hunt explores motherhood, hoarding, legacies of addiction, grief, how we insulate ourselves from the past, how we misinterpret the world. Nestled within her inquiry is a very special ghost book, an incomplete manuscript about people who can fly without wings, written by her father and found in his desk just days after he died. What secret messages might his work reveal? What wisdom might she distill from its unfinished pages? Hunt conveys a vivid and grateful life, one that comes from living closer to the dead and shedding fear for wonder. The Unwritten Book revels in the randomness, connectivity, and magic of everyday existence. And at its heart is the immense weight of love.
Product Details
Price
$28.00
$26.04
Publisher
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Publish Date
April 05, 2022
Pages
384
Dimensions
5.62 X 8.66 X 1.27 inches | 1.08 pounds
Language
English
Type
Hardcover
EAN/UPC
9780374604912
Earn by promoting books
Earn money by sharing your favorite books through our Affiliate program.
Become an affiliate
About the Author
Samantha Hunt is the author of the story collection The Dark Dark and the novels Mr. Splitfoot, The Invention of Everything Else, and The Seas. Hunt is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Bard Fiction Prize, the National Book Foundation's 5 Under 35 prize, and the St. Francis College Literary Prize, and she was a finalist for the Orange Prize and the PEN/Faulkner Award. She lives in upstate New York.
Reviews
A Most Anticipated Book of the Year: Lit Hub, The Millions
"An ardent investigation into life, love, death, and creativity . . . Rendered in exceptionally honed, often ravishing prose spiked with hilarious or stunning candor . . . A literary performance of uncommon perception, vitality, daring, and heart.--Donna Seaman, Booklist (starred review) "Hunt writes in touching detail and with heartfelt prose . . . Both intimate and incisive, this genre-melding collection will make readers want to hold their loved ones close."
--Publishers Weekly "Part literary criticism, part memoir, part family history, this new book explores the things that have a hold on us. I, for one, am ready to be haunted by Samantha Hunt once again."
--Katie Yee, Lit Hub "A vulnerable, wide-ranging, and at times deeply affecting patchwork of ruminations on the unknown."
--Kirkus Reviews "I'm utterly entranced, educated, and vitalized by Samantha Hunt's The Unwritten Book, a beautiful, inventive collection shot through with wildness and grace. I can't remember the last time I read something so heavy with grief and darkness that made me feel so accompanied in the human condition, so inspired to return to my life with more curiosity, love, and wonder."
--Maggie Nelson, author of On Freedom
"Samantha Hunt's writing is always precise, elliptical, and magical, whether she's weaving a fictional tale or, as in The Unwritten Book, delving into the mysteries of life, family, and especially the power of books, both real and imagined. The result is mesmerizing and truly marvelous."
--Susan Orlean, author of On Animals
"The Unwritten Book is a disobedient work--not quite memoir (even as the author interrogates her own life), not quite philosophy (though with much to say on art, faith, ethics, and more), not quite classifiable. Samantha Hunt's readers already know she is one of the best American writers of fiction of her generation; it's little surprise her nonfiction would be this thrilling, this haunting, this smart."
--Rumaan Alam, author of Leave the World Behind
"Like a trunk in the attic, The Unwritten Book offers up the most extraordinary, eclectic, and heart-wrenching insights, historical facts, stories, and advice on how to live closer to the dead. This book within a book is a tonic to our efficiency-addled present. I feel more alive and wiser for having read it."
--Cathy Park Hong, author of Minor Feelings
