Seven men tell their stories of survival on the streets of 1980s New York City in this gritty debut novel by the National Book Award–finalist. Like most New Yorkers, Johnny B. Goode hustles to make a living. His beat happens to be pharmaceutical distribution. His place of business, Washington Square Park. Over the course of one weekend, he and his crew of “retailers” sell their product to students, businessmen, tourists, drifters, and lowlifes, while evading the law and outmaneuvering the competition. It’s a fragile balance that avant-garde saxophonist and all-around nuisance Porco Miserio threatens to upend with his big mouth. As Johnny B. and his crew scramble to maintain their embattled existence, each relates their personal story of life on the fringes of Greenwich Village. Among them are Yusuf Ali, the NBA-sized Muslim whose profession is at odds with his faith; Holy Mother, Johnny B.’s boyhood friend and former Mafia hitman; and Santa Barbara, the Puerto Rican Santeria practitioner who has been deeply spooked. Authentic and original, the chorus of voices captures the streets of New York in all its widescreen splendor and punishing blight. An “atmospherically electric . . . Winning debut,” The Washington Square Ensemble introduced a prodigiously gifted new novelist to American readers (Kirkus Reviews). “The most exotic bunch of sweet characters since some of Jack Kerouac’s ‘holy angels’ first came alive in print.” —Los AngelesHerald Examiner

A hilarious collection of overlapping stories that explores the dark zone between artistic ambition and its achievement by the author of Early Work. Bookended by the misadventures of Leslie, an aspiring writer who moves form New York to Missoula, Montana, hoping to shake off lingering depression, this story collection follows young people pushed hard against—and often crashing into—their limits as not only would-be Tolstoys but also functioning, feeling human beings. As Martin’s characters age out of punk shows and all-night benders and into book clubs and elaborate weddings, they find that neither family life nor community ties can quite shore up the dam against despair. Has redemption through art ever been more than a pipe dream? Could writing the perfect sentence ever make such broken lives turn out right? Or is it time to sell the books and head for the barricades? Whatever the case, Andrew Martin’s winsome malcontents can be counted on to make agonized indecision cool again for the twenty-first century. Praise for Cool for America Long-listed for the Story Prize “Fun, irresistible, smart and wise . . . Shot through with flashes of crackling lucidity.” —Nathan Deuel, Los Angeles Times “Simultaneously sharp and self-lacerating and generous and agreeable.” —Matthew Schneier, The New York Times Book Review

When Peter meets Leslie, a sexual adventurer, he gets a glimpse of what he imagines himself to be: a writer of talent and nerve. Over the course of a Virginia summer, their charged, increasingly intimate friendship opens the door to difficult questions about love and literary ambition

May 24, 1941: Alexeï Berg, a classical pianist, is set to perform his first solo concert in Moscow. But just before his début, his parents -- his father a renowned playwright, and his mother a famed opera singer -- are exposed for their political indiscretions and held under arrest. With World War II on the brink, and fearing that his own entrapment is not far behind, Alexeï flees to the countryside, assumes the identity of a Soviet soldier, and falls dangerously in love with a general officer's daughter. What follows is a two-decades-long journey through war and peace, love and betrayal, art and artifice -- a rare ensemble in the making of the music of a life.

This carefully annotated bibliography lists sources of criticism for thirty-nine Southern male authors, each of whom has published at least one significant book of fiction between 1970 and 1994.

In this book Ian Goldin shows how the understanding of how nations escape poverty and achieve economic and social progress has changed as the pendulum has swung from arguments for state-led development to a preoccupation with market forces.