10:04

Leaving the Atocha Station, poet Ben Lerner's first novel, became an unlikely hit (by literary standards) in 2011, an event that's now part of the story of his second novel, 10:04, which (like his first book) layers fiction, memoir, essays, and in this case poetry in ways that seem both thrillingly original and of a piece with some of the other most interesting writers of our day: Sebald, Knausgaard, Bolaño, Teju Cole. No plot summary of the books does them justice, but this one involves, among other recurring elements, death, birth, superstorms, art, money, parenthood, and Back to the Future, a pivotal moment of which gives the novel its title. It's good!