Edwin Frank with James Wood: Stranger than Fiction

The novel of the 20th century wasn’t just art — it was ambition incarnate, a form that redefined itself with every turn of history.

Join New York Review Books editorial director Edwin Frank and The New Yorker’s James Wood for a reading and conversation about the radical transformations of the 20th century novel — and Frank’s new book, Stranger than Fiction, which has been named a best book of the year at the Economist and the New Yorker, and has been featured on the Washington Post 50 Best Nonfiction Books.

From Virginia Woolf’s interior revolutions to V. S. Naipaul’s piercing chronicles of empire, Thomas Mann’s grand symphonies to Chinua Achebe’s reimagination of history, Gertrude Stein’s linguistic experiments to Gabriel García Márquez’s lush, magical worlds — the novel became as unpredictable and transformative as the century itself.

At the center of the evening is Frank’s new book, Stranger than Fiction, which Vivian Gornick calls “a comfort, a solace, and a revelation.” In this intimate, sparring, and deeply engaging discussion, Frank and Wood ask: Which works of fiction defined the 20th century? What do they tell us about the world we inhabit now? And why do these novels still burn with such extraordinary relevance?

Epic, provocative, and alive with literary passion, this is the debate for anyone who loves the novel, the century it captured, and the critics who make us see it anew.

Praise for Stranger Than Fiction:

“Epic, personal, smart, wise, witty, with a heart going like mad.” — Joshua Cohen

“A pleasure and an inspiration … brilliant.” — Francine Prose

“Edwin Frank’s finely judged survey of modern fiction from Dostoevsky to Sebald will have you reaching for novels you hadn’t thought about in years.” — The Guardian