My top pick is not surprising. Baron Wenckheim’s Homecoming, László Krasznahorkai’s self-declared completion to his life’s work, is a monumental portrait of catastrophe, and though published in Hungarian in 2016, it feels absolutely of the moment, a depiction of a scattering world in which everything is devalued and no one has the resources to make sense of things. I wrote about it at great length for Music & Literature, and while I avoid the present trend of deeming any and every work of writing to be essential and crucial, I do think that Krasznahorkai’s quartet of novels will endure.
Otherwise, it seemed a bit of a lean year for books compared to the riches of 2018, and some of the best books below, like the two Laura Ridings from Ugly Duckling Presse, actually date from 2018. It’s wonderful to see another book from the always-brilliant Barbara Maria Stafford, and some very strong archival work in philosophy and classics appeared. (Sara Humphreys’s book on Athenian kinship is magisterial.) Melanie Mitchell’s book on artificial intelligence is perhaps the best survey of the state of the field I have read and is strongly recommended to all.
Many powerful forces encourage us to devalue knowledge, and to devalue even the very pursuit of knowledge. In an age of fear and encroaching chaos, this pressure grows stronger. It is my article of faith that whatever meaning can be gleaned from life nonetheless resides in expanding our epistemological horizons as far as they can go, and confronting the new frontiers even if we tremble in so doing. It is the only antidote to the myopia of lived experience.
Book of the Year
Baron Wenckheim's Homecoming
Krasznahorkai, László (Author), Mulzet, Ottilie (Translator)
New Directions
Literature
Unions: Two Stories
Musil, Robert (Author), Grill, Genese (Translator), Grill, Genese (Introduction)
Contra Mundum Press
And Go Like This: Stories
Crowley, John (Author)
Small Beer Press
Malina
Bachmann, Ingeborg (Author), Boehm, Philip (Translator), Kushner, Rachel (Introduction)
New Directions
The Prosecutor
Bastos, Augusto Roa (Author), Weldt-Basson, Helene Carol (Translator)
Fairleigh Dickinson University Press
Convalescent Conversations (Lost Literature)
Riding, Laura (Author), Fragopoulos, George (Editor)
Ugly Duckling Presse
Weeds
Xun, Lu (Author), Turner, Matt (Narrator)
Seaweed Salad Editions
Experts Are Puzzled
Riding, Laura (Author), Fragopoulos, George (Editor)
Ugly Duckling Presse
Dictator
Terry, Philip (Author)
Carcanet Press Ltd.
Love in the New Millennium (The Margellos World Republic of Letters)
Can Xue (Author), Wasmoen, Annelise Finegan (Translator), Myles, Eileen (Foreword)
Yale University Press
Bad Words: Selected Short Prose (The German List)
Aichinger, Ilse (Author), Wolf, Uljana (Translator), Hawkey, Christian (Translator)
Seagull Books
All That Is Evident Is Suspect: Readings from the Oulipo: 1963 - 2018
Monk, Ian (Translator), Levin Becker, Daniel (Translator), Duchamp, Marcel (Contributor), Perec, Georges (Contributor)
McSweeney's Publishing
Necropolis (Russian Library)
Khodasevich, Vladislav (Author), Vitali, Sarah (Translator), Bethea, David M. (Introduction)
Columbia University Press
The Best of R. A. Lafferty
R. A. Lafferty (Author)
Gollancz
R. A. Lafferty: Three Great Novels: Space Chantey, Fourth Mansions, Past Master
Lafferty, R. A. (Author)
Gollancz
The Revenger's Tragedy (Arden Early Modern Drama)
Minton, Gretchen E. (Editor), McMullan, Gordon (Series Editor), Jowett, John (Series Editor), Gossett, Suzanne (Series Editor)
The Arden Shakespeare
The White Devil (Arden Early Modern Drama)
Webster, John (Author), Robinson, Benedict S. (Editor), McMullan, Gordon (Series Editor), Jowett, John (Series Editor), Gossett, Suzanne (Series Editor)
The Arden Shakespeare
Where Reasons End: A Novel
Li, Yiyun (Author)
Random House
Japanese Ghost Stories
Hearn, Lafcadio (Author), Murray, Paul (Editor), Murray, Paul (Introduction)
Penguin Classics
The Labyrinth of Tender Force: 166 Love Stories (The German List)
Kluge, Alexander (Author), Hoban, Wieland (Translator)
Seagull Books
World-Changing Rage: News of the Antipodeans (The German List)
Baselitz, Georg (Author), Kluge, Alexander (Author), Derbyshire, Katy (Translator)
Seagull Books
Rock, Paper, Scissors: And Other Stories (New York Review Books Classics)
Osipov, Maxim (Author), Dralyuk, Boris (Editor), Fleming, Alex (Translator), Jackson, Anne Marie (Translator), Alexievich, Svetlana (Preface)
NYRB Classics
The Magic: (October 1961-October 1967) Ten Tales by Roger Zelazny
Zelazny, Roger (Author), Delany, Samuel R. (Editor), Schweitzer, Darrell (Introduction)
Positronic Publishing
West-Eastern Divan: Complete, annotated new translation, including Goethe's "Notes and Essays" & the unpublished poems
von Goethe, Johann Wolfgang (Author), Ormsby, Eric (Translator)
Gingko Library
Abel and Cain (New York Review Books Classics)
von Rezzori, Gregor (Author), Dollenmayer, David (Translator), Neugroschel, Joachim (Translator), Yarbrough, Marshall (Translator), Cohen, Joshua (Introduction)
NYRB Classics
Dante's Divine Comedy: Part One: Hell. Decorated and Englished in Prosaic Verse by Alasdair Gray
Gray, Alasdair (Author)
Canongate Books
PURGATORY: Dante's Divine Trilogy Part Two. Decorated and Englished in Prosaic Verse by Alasdair Gray
Alighieri, Dante (Author), Gray, Alisdair (Translator)
Canongate Books
Krishna's Lineage: The Harivamsha of Vyasa's Mahabharata
Brodbeck, Simon (Translator)
Oxford University Press
The Selected Letters of Ralph Ellison
Ellison, Ralph (Author), Callahan, John F. (Editor), Conner, Marc C. (Editor)
Random House
Humanities
Ribbon of Darkness: Inferencing from the Shadowy Arts and Sciences
Stafford, Barbara Maria (Author)
University of Chicago Press
Catastrophizing: Materialism and the Making of Disaster
Passannante, Gerard (Author)
University of Chicago Press
A History of Ambiguity
Ossa-Richardson, Anthony (Author)
Princeton University Press
Andalus and Sefarad: On Philosophy and Its History in Islamic Spain (Jews, Christians, and Muslims from the Ancient to the Modern World)
Stroumsa, Sarah (Author)
Princeton University Press
Composition and Cognition: Reflections on Contemporary Music and the Musical Mind
Lerdahl, Fred (Author)
University of California Press
Difference and Orientation: An Alexander Kluge Reader (signale|TRANSFER: German Thought in Translation)
Kluge, Alexander (Author), Langston, Richard (Editor)
Cornell University Press
Fifth Sun: A New History of the Aztecs
Townsend, Camilla (Author)
Oxford University Press
Cassius Dio (Ancients in Action)
Madsen, Jesper Majbom (Author)
Bloomsbury Academic
Music of a Thousand Years: A New History of Persian Musical Traditions
Lucas, Ann E. (Author)
University of California Press
The Oulipo and Modern Thought
Duncan, Dennis (Author)
OUP Oxford
Sophocles: A Study of His Theater in Its Political and Social Context
Jouanna, Jacques (Author), Rendall, Steven (Translator)
Princeton University Press
A History of Art History
Wood, Christopher S. (Author)
Princeton University Press
I, the Poet: First-Person Form in Horace, Catullus, and Propertius
McCarthy, Kathleen (Author)
Cornell University Press
Inside Arabic Music: Arabic Maqam Performance and Theory in the 20th Century
Farraj, Johnny (Author), Shumays, Sami Abu (Author)
Oxford University Press
Magic in Ancient Greece and Rome
Watson, Lindsay C. (Author)
Bloomsbury Academic
Reading Backwards
John Crowley (Author)
Subterranean
A Śabda Reader: Language in Classical Indian Thought (Historical Sourcebooks in Classical Indian Thought)
Bronkhorst, Johannes (Editor)
Columbia University Press
The Essence of Tsongkhapa's Teachings: The Dalai Lama on the Three Principal Aspects of the Path
Dalai Lama, His Holiness the (Author), Russell, Jeremy (Editor), Lhakdor, Venerable (Translator)
Wisdom Publications
Nietzsche's Free Spirit Works: A Dialectical Reading
Meyer, Matthew (Author)
Cambridge University Press
Archilochus: The Poems: Introduction, Text, Translation, and Commentary
Swift, Laura (Author)
Oxford University Press
Rudolf Carnap: Early Writings: The Collected Works of Rudolf Carnap, Volume 1
Carus, A.W. (Editor), Friedman, Michael (Editor), Kienzler, Wolfgang (Editor), Richardson, Alan (Editor), Schlotter, Sven (Editor)
Oxford University Press
Frame by Frame: A Materialist Aesthetics of Animated Cartoons
Frank, Hannah (Author), Morgan, Daniel (Editor), Gunning, Tom (Foreword)
University of California Press
Chaucer: A European Life
Turner, Marion (Author)
Princeton University Press
How to Be a Pyrrhonist: The Practice and Significance of Pyrrhonian Skepticism
Bett, Richard (Author)
Cambridge University Press
Imitating Authors: Plato to Futurity
Burrow, Colin (Author)
Oxford University Press
The Cypria (Hellenic Studies Series)
Davies, Malcolm (Author)
Center for Hellenic Studies
Networking the Bloc: Experimental Art in Eastern Europe 1965–1981 (The MIT Press)
Kemp-Welch, Klara (Author)
The MIT Press
How to Read a Japanese Poem
Carter, Steven D. (Author)
Columbia University Press
Knowing Our Limits
Ballantyne, Nathan (Author)
Oxford University Press
Brahms's Elegies: The Poetics of Loss in Nineteenth-Century German Culture (Music in Context)
Grimes, Nicole (Author)
Cambridge University Press
Romanticism and the Re-Invention of Modern Religion: The Reconciliation of German Idealism and Platonic Realism
Hampton, Alexander J. B. (Author)
Cambridge University Press
Kinship in Ancient Athens: Two-Volume Set: An Anthropological Analysis
Humphreys, S. C. (Author)
Oxford University Press
Wittgenstein on Logic as the Method of Philosophy: Re-examining the Roots and Development of Analytic Philosophy
Kuusela, Oskari (Author)
Oxford University Press
Philosophy, Rhetoric, and Thomas Hobbes
Raylor, Timothy (Author)
OUP Oxford
The Autobiography of Solomon Maimon: The Complete Translation
Maimon, Solomon (Author), Melamed, Yitzhak Y. (Editor), Socher, Abraham (Editor), Reitter, Paul (Translator), Freudenthal, Gideon (Afterword)
Princeton University Press
The Roots of Platonism: The Origins and Chief Features of a Philosophical Tradition
Dillon, John (Author)
Cambridge University Press
Hermann Cohen: An Intellectual Biography
Beiser, Frederick C. (Author)
OUP Oxford
Tragedy, Ritual and Money in Ancient Greece: Selected Essays
Seaford, Richard (Author), Bostock, Robert (Editor)
Cambridge University Press
Ptolemy's Philosophy: Mathematics as a Way of Life
Feke, Jacqueline (Author)
Princeton University Press
Science
Artificial Intelligence: A Guide for Thinking Humans
Mitchell, Melanie (Author)
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
The Deep History of Ourselves: The Four-Billion-Year Story of How We Got Conscious Brains
Ledoux, Joseph (Author)
Viking
Good Enough: The Tolerance for Mediocrity in Nature and Society
Milo, Daniel S. (Author)
Harvard University Press
Mind in Motion: How Action Shapes Thought
Tversky, Barbara (Author)
Basic Books
Brains as Engines of Association: An Operating Principle for Nervous Systems
Purves, Dale (Author)
Oxford University Press
The Reality of Time Flow: Local Becoming in Modern Physics (The Frontiers Collection)
Arthur, Richard T. W. (Author)
Springer
Philosophy of Physics: Quantum Theory (Princeton Foundations of Contemporary Philosophy Book 33)
Maudlin, Tim (Author)
Princeton University Press
The Emotional Mind: The Affective Roots of Culture and Cognition
Asma, Stephen T. (Author)
Harvard University Press
Becoming Human: A Theory of Ontogeny
Tomasello, Michael (Author)
Belknap Press: An Imprint of Harvard University Press
UNIX: A History and a Memoir
Kernighan, Brian (Author)
This View of Life: Completing the Darwinian Revolution
Wilson, David Sloan (Author)
Pantheon
Newton the Alchemist: Science, Enigma, and the Quest for Nature's "Secret Fire"
Newman, William (Author)
Princeton University Press
Social Sciences
Psychiatry and Its Discontents
Scull, Andrew (Author)
University of California Press
The Future of Immortality: Remaking Life and Death in Contemporary Russia (Princeton Studies in Culture and Technology, 23)
Bernstein, Anya (Author)
Princeton University Press
Parliament the Mirror of the Nation: Representation, Deliberation, and Democracy in Victorian Britain (Ideas in Context)
Conti, Gregory (Author)
Cambridge University Press
World Ordering: A Social Theory of Cognitive Evolution (Cambridge Studies in International Relations)
Adler, Emanuel (Author)
Cambridge University Press
Capitalism, Alone: The Future of the System That Rules the World
Milanovic, Branko (Author)
Belknap Press: An Imprint of Harvard University Press
Creatures of Cain: The Hunt for Human Nature in Cold War America
Milam, Erika Lorraine (Author)
Princeton University Press
The Ideas That Made America: A Brief History
Ratner-Rosenhagen, Jennifer (Author)
Oxford University Press
Why Should We Obey the Law? (Political Theory Today)
Klosko, George (Author)
Polity
To See Paris and Die: The Soviet Lives of Western Culture
Gilburd, Eleonory (Author)
Belknap Press: An Imprint of Harvard University Press
Taken for Granted: The Remarkable Power of the Unremarkable (Princeton University Press (Wildguides))
Zerubavel, Eviatar (Author)
Princeton University Press
Economy and Society (2 Volume Set)
Weber, Max (Author), Roth, Guenther (Editor), Wittich, Claus (Editor)
University of California Press
History
Sorting Out the Mixed Economy: The Rise and Fall of Welfare and Developmental States in the Americas (Histories of Economic Life)
Offner, Professor Amy C. (Author)
Princeton University Press
The Anarchy: The East India Company, Corporate Violence, and the Pillage of an Empire
Dalrymple, William (Author)
Bloomsbury Publishing
The Boundless Sea: A Human History of the Oceans
Abulafia, David (Author)
Oxford University Press
The Power of Print in Modern China: Intellectuals and Industrial Publishing from the End of Empire to Maoist State Socialism (Studies of the Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Columbia University)
Culp, Robert (Author)
Columbia University Press
Arabs: A 3,000-Year History of Peoples, Tribes and Empires
Mackintosh-Smith, Tim (Author)
Yale University Press
Iran Rising: The Survival and Future of the Islamic Republic
Saikal, Amin (Author)
Princeton University Press
The Postwar Moment: Progressive Forces in Britain, France, and the United States after World War II
Woloch, Isser (Author)
Yale University Press
A History of Twentieth-Century Germany
Herbert, Ulrich (Author)
Oxford University Press
The Life of Alcibiades: Dangerous Ambition and the Betrayal of Athens (Cornell Studies in Classical Philology (68))
Romilly, Jacqueline de (Author), Rawlings, Elizabeth Trapnell (Translator)
Cornell University Press
Escape from Rome: The Failure of Empire and the Road to Prosperity (The Princeton Economic History of the Western World)
Scheidel, Walter (Author)
Princeton University Press
Emperor: A New Life of Charles V
Parker, Geoffrey (Author)
Yale University Press
Useful Enemies: Islam and The Ottoman Empire in Western Political Thought, 1450-1750
Malcolm, Noel (Author)
Oxford University Press
The Global Age: Europe 1950-2017 (The Penguin History of Europe)
Kershaw, Ian (Author)
Penguin Books
Empires of the Mind: The Colonial Past and the Politics of the Present (The Wiles Lectures)
Gildea, Robert (Author)
Cambridge University Press
The Bookshop of the World: Making and Trading Books in the Dutch Golden Age
Pettegree, Andrew (Author), der Weduwen, Arthur (Author)
Yale University Press
Eric Hobsbawm: A Life in History
Evans, Richard J. (Author)
Oxford University Press
Comics
Reincarnation Stories
Deitch, Kim (Author)
Fantagraphics
Maggy Garrisson
Trondheim, Lewis (Author), Stéphane, Oiry (Illustrator)
SelfMadeHero
Infinity 8 Vol. 3: The Gospel According to Emma
Vehlmann, Fabien (Author), Trondheim, Lewis (Author), Balez, Olivier (Artist)
Magnetic Press
Clyde Fans
Seth (Author)
Drawn and Quarterly
Stay
Trondheim, Lewis (Author), Chevillard, Hubert (Artist)
Magnetic Press
Bezimena
Bunjevac, Nina (Author)
Fantagraphics
Belonging: A German Reckons with History and Home
Krug, Nora (Author)
Scribner
George Herriman’s “Krazy Kat”, The Complete Color Sundays 1935–1944
Braun, Alexander (Author)
TASCHEN
The George Herriman Library: Krazy & Ignatz 1916-1918
Herriman, George (Author)
Fantagraphics
The Arab of the Future 4: A Graphic Memoir of a Childhood in the Middle East, 1987-1992
Sattouf, Riad (Author)
Metropolitan Books
Petit: The Ogre Gods Book One
Boulard, Hubert (Author), Gatignol, Bertrand (Artist)
Magnetic Press
Half-Blood: The Ogre Gods Book Two
Boulard, Hubert (Author), Gatignol, Bertrand (Artist)
Magnetic Press
The Great Man: The Ogre Gods Book Three
Hubert (Author), Gatignol, Bertrand (Artist)
Magnetic Press
Kafkaesque: Fourteen Stories
Kuper, Peter (Adapter), Kafka, Franz (Author), Kuper, Peter (Translator)
W. W. Norton & Company
Heart of Darkness
Kuper, Peter (Adapter), Conrad, Joseph (Author), Jasanoff, Maya (Foreword)
W. W. Norton & Company
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