Recommendations from our site
“Transcription features a Ben Lerner-like figure, who travels to Providence, Rhode Island, to interview a great poet and former mentor of his own. Shortly before the interview, which seems likely to be the ageing writer’s last, the protagonist breaks his phone, which is his only way of recording audio, and finds himself unable to explain the problem to his subject. The fallout from this conversation, or his reconstruction of it, is revisited throughout the book. Transcription has met, almost invariably, with rave reviews and is that rare beast: a slippery experimental novel that breaks into the bestseller lists.” Read more...
Must-Read Novels of Summer 2026
Cal Flyn, Five Books Editor
