Submergence

Our Phinney by Post picks have gotten an excellent response so far, and I sure hope that extends to #4, but we'll see. It's a book so self-serious that it skirts the edge of parody, told in sternly formal language about two characters so exceptionally cultivated you may be tempted to roll your eyes. Nevertheless, I loved it: in its clipped sentences, the massive scales of biology and history and the poignancy of individual existence gather weight until whatever profundity the book claims (and it claims a lot) feels entirely earned, and unlike anything else you're likely to read.