William T. Vollmann Books

The collection showcases William T. Vollmann's diverse visual artwork over four decades, highlighting his empathetic engagement with marginalized subjects. It features a variety of mediums, including Kodachrome slides of Afghan Mujahideen, watercolor sketches from Inuit teenagers, and various photographic prints capturing global landscapes and human experiences. Accompanying essays delve into Vollmann's artistic philosophy, exploring themes such as beauty, suffering, and consent in photography, while also linking his visual art to his extensive literary work.

This collection showcases William T. Vollmann's extensive visual artwork spanning four decades, accompanied by his insightful commentary on the creative process and the connections to his writing. It features diverse works, including photographs of Afghan Mujahideen, Inuit sketches, and various prints capturing marginalized subjects worldwide. Essays within the book delve into Vollmann's perspectives on the purpose of photography and the themes he explores, such as beauty, suffering, and compassion, making it a valuable resource for fans and scholars alike.

In the second volume of William T. Vollmann's exploration of global warming, he begins in the coal fields of West Virginia and Eastern Kentucky, where coal is seen as both a fuel and a heritage. Over four years, Vollmann documents the devastation in hollowed-out towns with polluted streams and unsafe drinking water, covertly visits mountaintop removal mines, and highlights unpaid fines for health and safety violations, alongside the tragic stories of miners who lost their lives due to corporate negligence. His investigation into natural gas takes him to Greeley, Colorado, where he interviews anti-fracking activists, a city planner, and a homeowner suffering health issues related to fracking. When addressing oil production, he converses with industry leaders, including a former CEO of Conoco and a vice president of the Bank of Oklahoma, while also conducting discreet interviews with guest workers in the United Arab Emirates involved in oil-related labor. This volume, like its predecessor, aims to understand and listen rather than assign blame, except in clear cases of corporate and political wrongdoing. Vollmann, acknowledging his own role as a carbon burner, quantifies his power use and seeks to explain to future generations why society ignored scientific consensus, continuously increasing electric power demand while dismissing viable alternatives.

As contemporary cosmologists explore the universe's vastness and the nearly insignificant role mankind plays in it, the repercussions from Copernicus's radical views continue to resound. The author provides an enlightening and readable explication of Copernicus's book and epoch, and the momentous clash between the two.

For generations of migrant workers, Imperial County--the California desert region where the U.S. borders Mexico--has held the promise of paradise and the reality of hell.

"Describes the 1877 war that pitted the legendary Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce against Civil War Veteran General Oliver Otis Howard."--Publisher.

From the National Book Award-winning author of Europe Central – a dazzling fictional account of the epic fighting retreat of the Nez Perce IndiansIn this fifth installment in his acclaimed Seven Dreams series of novels examining the collisions between Native Americans and European colonizers, William T. Vollmann tells the story of the epic fighting retreat of the Nez Perce Indians, with flashbacks to the Civil War. Defrauded and intimidated at every turn, the Nez Perces finally went on the warpath in 1877, subjecting the U.S. Army to its greatest defeat since Little Big Horn the previous year, as they fled from northeast Oregon across Montana to the Canadian border. Vollmann’s main character is not the legendary Chief Joseph but his pursuer, General Oliver Otis Howard, the brave, shy, tormented, devoutly Christian Civil War veteran. In this novel, we see him as commander, father, son, husband, friend, and killer. Teeming with many vivid characters on both sides of the conflict, and written in an original style in which the printed page works as a stage with multiple layers of foreground and background, The Dying Grass is another mesmerizing achievement from one of the most ambitious writers of our time.

"In the jungles of South America, on the ice fields of Alaska, the plains of the Midwest, and the streets of San Francisco, a fearsome battle rages. The insects are vying for world domination; the inventors of electricity stand in evil opposition. Bug , a young man, rebels against his own kind and joins forces with the insects. Wayne, a thug, allies himself with the malevolent forces of electricity and vows to assassinate the preying mantis who tends bar in Oregon. A brusque La Pasionara with the sprightly name of Millie leads an intrepid band of revolutionaries"--Publisher's description

From a writer who has won comparison with Thomas Pynchon and William S. Burroughs comes thirteen unnerving and often breathtaking stories populated by punks and angels, skinheads and religious assassins, streetwalkers and fetishists--people who live outside the law and and the clear light of the every day. Set in landscapes as diverse as ancient Babylon, India, and the seamy underbelly of San Francisco, these daring and innovative tales are laced with Vollman's fertile imagination. The Rainbow Stories ushers us into a world that bears an awful yet hypnotic resemblance to that of our deepest nightmares, confirming Vollmann's reputation as a dark visionary of contemporary fiction.

The time is the tenth century A.D. The newcomers are a proud and bloody-minded people whose kings once changed themselves into wolves. The Norse have advanced as implacably as a glacier from Iceland to the wastes of Greenland and from there to the place they call Vinland the Good. The natives are a bronze-skinned race who have not yet discovered iron and still see themselves as part of nature. As William T. Vollmann tells the converging stories of these two peoples and of the Norsewomen Freydis and Gudrid, whose venomous rivalry brings frost into paradise he creates a tour-de-force of speculative history, a vivid amalgam of Icelandic saga, Inuit creation myth, and contemporary travel writing that yields a new an utterly original vision of our continent and its past.--back cover

Since the publication of his first book in 1987, William T. Vollmann has established himself as one of the most fascinating and unconventional literary figures on the scene today. Named one of the twenty best writers under forty by the New Yorker in 1999, Vollmann received the best reviews of his career for The Royal Family, a searing fictional trip through a San Francisco underworld populated by prostitutes, drug addicts, and urban spiritual seekers. Part biblical allegory and part skewed postmodern crime novel, The Royal Family is a vivid and unforgettable work of fiction by one of today's most daring writers.

'Europe Central' is composed of a series of intertwined stories which examine a vast array of characters, ranging from generals to martyrs, officers to poets, traitors to artists and musicians - all living in the USSR or Germany during the Second World War.

Supernaturally tinged stories from William T. Vollmann, author of the National Book Award winner Europe Central Watch for Vollmann’s new work of nonfiction, No Immediate Danger, coming in April of 2018 In this magnificent new work of fiction, his first in nine years, celebrated author William T. Vollmann offers a collection of ghost stories linked by themes of love, death, and the erotic. A Bohemian farmer’s dead wife returns to him, and their love endures, but at a gruesome price. A geisha prolongs her life by turning into a cherry tree. A journalist, haunted by the half-forgotten killing of a Bosnian couple, watches their story, and his own wartime tragedy, slip away from him. A dying American romances the ghost of his high school sweetheart while a homeless salaryman in Tokyo animates paper cutouts of ancient heroes. Are ghosts memories, fantasies, or monsters? Is there life in death? Vollmann has always operated in the shadowy borderland between categories, and these eerie tales, however far-flung their settings, all focus on the attempts of the living to avoid, control, or even seduce death. Vollmann’s stories will transport readers to a fantastical world where love and lust make anything possible.

Arranged as a huge thematic palindrome, The Atlas showcases Vollmann's ability to build strange structures, sonnets composed of stories instead of words.

In his nonfiction, William T. Vollmann has established himself as a distinctive voice addressing critical issues, including poverty, violence, and the complexities of American imperialism at the U.S./Mexico border. He now confronts a pressing global concern: the human actions and factors contributing to climate change. Vollmann begins the first volume of Carbon Ideologies by analyzing the various causes of global warming, such as industrial manufacturing, agricultural practices, fossil fuel extraction, and the universal desire for comfort. He focuses initially on nuclear power, recounting his perilous seven-year journey to the contaminated no-go zones and ghost towns of Fukushima, Japan, following the 2011 tsunami and reactor meltdowns. Armed with a dosimeter and later a scintillation counter, he measured radiation levels while interviewing tsunami survivors, nuclear evacuees, anti-nuclear activists, and pro-nuclear utility workers. With his characteristic depth of knowledge, sardonic wit, and extensive research, Vollmann crafts a compelling and sobering narrative that reveals the ongoing crisis at Fukushima, challenging the comforting reassurances of official Japanese energy experts.

"After being initiated into a coven of island witches, Neva begins to fulfill her fate in a Tenderloin dive bar. Her worshippers include Richard, the introverted, alcoholic, occasionally omniscient narrator; a profane, aggressive transgender sex worker named Shantelle; the brisk but motherly barmaid Francine; and the former Frank, who has renamed herself after her idol Judy Garland. When Judy starts to love Neva too much, Judy's retired policeman boyfriend embarks on a mission of exposure and destruction."--Provided by publisher

A “beautifully written and deeply affecting” novel (USA Today) about a Vietnam veteran—from the National Book Award-winning author of Europe CentralFrom the acclaimed author of Europe Central comes this fever dream of a novel about a Vietnam veteran, Jimmy, who struggles with alcoholism and devotes his government check and his waking hours to the search for a beautiful and majestic sex worker, Gloria—a woman who may or may not exist save in Jimmy's rambling dreams. Gloria's image seems distilled from memory and fantasy and the fragments of whatever Jimmy can buy from the other sex workers: their sex, their stories—all the unavailing dreams of love and salvation among the drinkers and addicts who haunt San Francisco's Tenderloin District.

In this anthology, 26 writers illuminate the motivations at the heart of their creative lives in original essays that are as surprising and varied as their fiction. The contributors include Pat Conroy, Norman Mailor, Rick Moody and David Foster Wallace.

In 1982, a 23-year-old William T. Vollmann took his camera and tape recorder and headed off to help the Afghanis in their war against Soviet invaders. Originally published in 1992, a decade later, his unique record of his fight with the mujahdeen as they fought against Soviet troops was held as a bold and original' achievement. Now re-released in 2013, this new edition of An Afghanistan Picture Show features a new introduction by the author and includes a number of Vollmann's photos and drawings from his trip to one of the most dangerous places on the planet.'

Heralded as “one of America’s most intrepid fictional frontiersmen” ( Publishers Weekly ), William T. Vollmann has few equals on the literary landscape. Called a cross between William Burroughs and Thomas Pynchon, he explores the dark margins of society with a rare and ferocious imagination. In his newest novel, he takes what may be his most daring tour of this world of harrowing, essential truths. Butterfly Stories follows a Henry Milleresque narrator in a dizzying cradle-to-grave hunt for love that takes him from the comfortable confines of suburban America to the blood-stained killing fields of modern Cambodia. The object of abuse and ridicule as a child, the “Butterfly boy” finds his only connection is with those outside of society, the untouchables. It is here that he meets up with Ulrich, the psychopathic son of a former S.S. officer; befriends a hedonistic photographer who travels with him to Southeast Asia; visits Thailand, where Benadryl and prostitutes with AIDS are his ever-present companions; and, finally, falls in love with Vanna, a waif-like hooker plying her wares in post-Khmer Rouge Phnom Penh. With Vanna he will engage in a monumental search for wisdom that will take him to the precipice of hell. Vollmann’s most accessible work to date, this exotic, erotic, evocative tale will surely add to the legions of admirers who proclaim him as one of today’s most arresting, provocative, and inventive writers.

The award-winning author of Europe Central and Rising Up and Rising Down meditates on the diversity of poverty in a series of vignettes through which he shares interviews with impoverished people from around the world who draw on a range of belief systems to account for their financial disadvantages.

Vollmann is a relentlessly curious, endlessly sensitive & unequivocally adventurous examiner of human existence. He's investigated the causes & symptoms of humanity's obsession with violence (Rising Up & Rising Down), taken a personal look into the hearts & minds of the world's poorest inhabitants (Poor People), & now turns his attentions to America itself, to our romanticizing of freedom & the ways in which we restrict the very freedoms we profess to admire. For "Riding Toward Everywhere," Vollmann himself takes to the rails. His main accomplice is Steve, a captivating fellow trainhopper who expertly accompanies him thru the secretive waters of this particular way of life. Vollmann describes the thrill & terror of lying in a trainyard in the dark, avoiding the flickering flashlights of railroad bulls; the gorgeously wild scenery of the American West as seen from a grainer platform; the complicated considerations involved in trying to hop a moving train. It's a dangerous, thrilling, evocative examination of this underground lifestyle, & it's one of Vollmann's most hauntingly beautiful narratives. Questioning anything & everything, subjecting both our national romance & our skepticism about hobo life to his finely tuned, analytical eye & the reality of what he actually sees, he carries on in the tradition of Huckleberry Finn, providing a moving portrait of this strikingly modern vision of the American dream.

Britain's most prestigious literary magazine brings you the very best new fiction, memoir, reportage, poetry, photography and art from around the world. Granta consistently publishes innovative and prize-winning writing in each quarterly issue, such as 'Rain' by Colin Barrett and 'The Room-Service Waiter' by Tom Crewe (both winners of the 2024 O. Henry Prize for Short Fiction), as well as 'Theories of Care' by Sophie Mackintosh, which won the 2024 Pushcart Prize.

1979: Die Rote Armee marschiert nach Afghanistan. Das Land taumelt ins Chaos. Partisanen leisten den um ein Vielfaches überlegenen Besatzern schier unüberwindbaren Widerstand. Als die Bilder von ausgebrannten Sowjet-Panzern um die Welt gehen, fühlt sich ein junger Amerikaner aufgerufen zum Handeln. Seine kleine Schwester ertrank, weil er unachtsam war. Ihr konnte er nicht helfen; jetzt zieht er los, um die Welt zu retten. In Afghanistan will er 'Brücken bauen' und hängt am Ende erschöpft und orientierungslos über der Schulter eines Mudschahed, der ihn durch Gebirgsflüsse tragen muss. Während er allmählich begreift, dass er angesichts dieses Krieges machtlos ist, sehen die kämpfenden Afghanen in dem jungen Amerikaner einen Superhelden. 'Jeden Tag ging er durch Saddar und führte Interviews mit Mudschaheddin-Kommandeuren, die in ihren Hotelzimmern ihre Gewehre putzten, sich mit allerlei Afghanen und Pakistanis unterhielten, Cola und Sprite kauften und sich in Rikschas zu den politischen Büros fahren ließen. Im Hotel gab es einen Typen aus Chitral, der sich sehr für den Jungen Mann interessierte. Sein Bruder sei der Polizeichef von Peschawar, sagte er, und die Polizei würde kommen und den Jungen Mann verhaften. ‹Und was geschieht dann?›, fragte der Junge Mann besorgt. ‹Man wird Sie schlagen, Sie CIA!› Jussuf Ali kicherte und schlug dem Jungen Mann auf die Schulter.'

Angesichts der Havarie in Fukushima tappten alle wochenlang im dunkeln: Was passierte wirklich in den Reaktorblöcken? War die Kernschmelze bereits eingetreten? Und ganz praktisch: Wie rechnet man eigentlich Sievert in Becquerel um? Kraftwerksbetreiber und Verwaltung schienen überfordert, Medienberichte waren widersprüchlich, selbst den Geigerzählern war nicht zu trauen. In dieser Situation machte sich William T. Vollmann, ausgestattet mit einem Dosimeter und Jodtabletten aus dem Kalten Krieg, Anfang April auf den Weg ins japanische Katastrophengebiet. »Vollmann reist durch ein zerstörtes, doppelt und dreifach heimgesuchtes Land, weil er mit eigenen Augen sehen will, was geschehen ist. Weil er es aufschreiben und so das Unbegreifbare, das Unsichtbare sichtbar machen will. Und dieses Unsichtbare ist nicht abstrakt, sondern ganz konkret. Es heißt Radioaktivität. Deswegen muss Vollmann bis zum Äußersten gehen, bis an die Grenze, in die Sperrzone eben.« (Richard Kämmerlings in der Welt am Sonntag)

With his first three works of fiction, William T. Vollmann showcased his extraordinary talent, drawing comparisons to literary giants like William Burroughs and Thomas Pynchon. His latest novel tells the story of Jimmy, abandoned by his lover, Gloria, a prostitute. Overwhelmed by loneliness and grief, he attempts to reconstruct Gloria's essence through the fragments of other street workers' lives—purchasing locks of hair and snippets of their dreams. As he navigates San Francisco's Tenderloin district, he encounters a vivid cast of characters: Candy, who punishes her customers but resists derogatory labels; Snake, who exploits his wife; Nicole, who has a dark job; Jack, a drug user who still appreciates Chopin; and Gloria, whose existence may be a figment of Jimmy's imagination. Vollmann’s writing is a powerful exploration of urban life, confronting the solitude of the homeless and the marginalized. His exhilarating style and lyrical prose illuminate the struggles of his characters, revealing a world of harsh realities beautifully articulated by a writer of remarkable gifts.