Michael Cunningham Books

Get ready for the online adventures of one man who just wants to make friends. And one very annoyed world. Based on the ingenious Sir Michael Twitter account, How to (Almost) Make Friends on the Internet is the funniest book you'll read this year. Whether it's offering his services as a Karate Lawyer or Funeral DJ, devising the world's worst plan to get a free haircut, or trying to buy a blue bucket that may or may not be for sale, Michael just wants to connect with people. The only problem is that people are slightly less enthusiastic about connecting with him, and the results are utterly hilarious. Warning: you'll never think about adding someone called Michael to a group chat the same way ever again.

An epic tale of three generations of an American family--and the ambition, violence, deceptions and hard-won love that shapes their lives. Rich in vivid details and masterfully crafted characters' lives, and narrated in a voice of great emotional power and sensitivity, Flesh and Blood is an unforgettable, moving and stunning portrait of contemporary America.

From Michael Cunningham, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Hours, comes this widely praised novel of two boyhood friends: Jonathan, lonely, introspective, and unsure of himself; and Bobby, hip, dark, and inarticulate. In New York after college, Bobby moves in with Jonathan and his roommate, Clare, a veteran of the city's erotic wars. Bobby and Clare fall in love, scuttling the plans of Jonathan, who is gay, to father Clare's child. Then, when Clare and Bobby have a baby, the three move to a small house upstate to raise "their" child together and, with an odd friend, Alice, create a new kind of family. A Home at the End of the World masterfully depicts the charged, fragile relationships of urban life today.

Cunningham draws inventively on the life and work of Virginia Woolf to tell the story of a group of contemporary characters struggling with the conflicting claims of love and inheritance, hope and despair. The narrative of Woolf's last days before her suicide early in World War II counterpoints the fictional stories of Samuel, a famous poet whose life has been shadowed by his talented and troubled mother, and his lifelong friend Clarissa, who strives to forge a balanced and rewarding life in spite of the demands of friends, lovers, and family. --From publisher description

Provincetown, physically remote, and heartbreakingly beautiful, has been amenable and intriguing to outsiders for as long as it has existed. Written by the author of the best-selling, Pulitzer Prize-winning The Hours, this work brings us Provincetown, one of the extraordinary towns in the US, perched on the sandy tip at the end of Cape Cod.

Death in Venice tells how Gustave von Aschenbach, a writer utterly absorbed in his work, arrives in Venice as a result of a 'youthfully ardent thirst for distant scenes,' and meets there a young boy by whose beauty he becomes obsessed. His pitiful pursuit of the object of his abnormal affection and its inevitable and pathetic climax is told here with the particular skill the author has for this shorter form of fiction. (blurb) Em A Morte em Veneza, Thomas Mann apresenta uma escrita complexa e profunda, onde quase cada parágrafo pode ter várias leituras. Em contraponto, o enredo é praticamente inexistente: um homem de meia-idade viaja até Veneza, apaixona-se platonicamente por um jovem rapaz polaco extremamente atraente e morre sem sequer ter trocado uma palavra com ele.

Lucas, Catherine, Simon: three characters meet time and again in the three linked narratives that form ‘Specimen Days’. The first, a science fiction of the past, tells of a boy whose brother was ‘devoured’ by the machine he operated. The second is a noirish thriller set in our century, as a police psychologist attempts to track down a group of terrorists. And the third and final strand accompanies two strange beings into the future. A novel of connecting and reconnecting, inspired by the writings of the great visionary poet Walt Whitman, Specimen Days is a genre-bending, haunting ode to life itself – a work of surpassing power and beauty by one of the most original and daring writers at work today

Here are the moments that our fairy tales forgot or deliberately concealed, reimagined by one of the most gifted storytellers of his generation, the Pulitzer Prize winning author of The Hours, and exquisitely illustrated by Yuko Shimizu. Rarely have our bedtime stories been this dark, this perverse, or this true.

Imagine what a dictionary might look like about thirty years hence, when all of the world's problems are solved and our current dictionaries are a distant memory. Dave Eggers, Jonathan Safran Foer and Nicole Krauss have lined up an incredible array of writers to bring you that futuristic dictionary and a vision of the world as it might be. Think of it as a dictionary of language for describing what the future could look like a dictionary that is both useful and romantic, hopeful and necessary, pragmatic and idealistic, and frequently funny. This is science fiction but with a difference.

As the world evolves, a family navigates the complexities of growing up, aging, love, loss, and resilience. In a Brooklyn brownstone, Dan and Isabel's seemingly perfect life begins to unravel. Both harbor feelings for Isabel's younger brother, Robbie, a free spirit living in the attic. As Robbie grapples with a recent breakup and prepares to leave home, tensions rise, threatening the family's cohesion. Meanwhile, ten-year-old Nathan seeks independence, while five-year-old Violet remains blissfully unaware of her parents' growing divide. As the pandemic lockdown begins, the brownstone transforms into a confining space. Violet becomes fixated on safety, while Nathan rebels against her rules. Isabel and Dan communicate through thinly veiled frustrations, and Robbie finds himself isolated in a mountain cabin in Iceland, wrestling with his thoughts and a curated online persona. As the family emerges from the crisis, they confront a changed reality, reflecting on their experiences, losses, and the path forward. This poignant narrative, crafted by a Pulitzer Prize-winning author, delves into the intricacies of love, loss, and the challenges of family life—exploring how to coexist while navigating personal struggles.

The whole course of one's life really can change in an instant.

In November 2004, Barrett Meeks, reeling from another lost love, finds himself in Central Park, where he is inexplicably drawn to a pale, translucent light in the sky that seems to regard him with a godlike presence. Despite his skepticism towards visions and faith, he cannot ignore this experience. Meanwhile, in Bushwick, Brooklyn, Beth, engaged to Barrett's older brother Tyler, is battling colon cancer. Together, they navigate a fragile yet happy existence. Tyler, a struggling musician with a drug addiction, is desperately trying to compose a wedding song that transcends mere sentimentality to embody eternal love. As Barrett grapples with the significance of the light, he unexpectedly turns to religion, while Tyler increasingly believes that drugs are the key to unlocking his creative potential. Beth confronts her mortality with courage and stoicism. The narrative follows the divergent paths of the Meeks brothers in their quests for transcendence. With subtle, lucid prose, the author captures the complexities of his characters and delves into the depths of the human soul, blending beauty and heartbreak, comedy and tragedy, affirming his status as a significant voice in contemporary literature.

The story revolves around the special bond between Tehya and her father as they spend quality time together. Their adventures highlight the joy of their relationship, showcasing moments of fun, learning, and connection. Through their interactions, the narrative emphasizes the importance of family and the simple pleasures of life.