21 Books for the 21st Century: The Longlist, from the editors of WLT

At the beginning of this spring, the editors of WLT invited twenty-one writers to nominate a book published since 2000 that had a major impact on their own work, as well as a brief statement explaining their choice. It is now Your Vote for your favorites during our two-week competition (April 1st to 15th)! Participating voters will be put on a drawing for a copy of the 1st place book, and the top 5 list will be published in the summer edition.

Ready to choose? Click here.

Meena Alexander

Atmospheric embroidery: poems

Quarterly, 2018

The spine of Atmospheric embroidery is Blues in the Indian Ocean, who traces the poet’s sea voyage from India to Sudan as a child, examining my own diasporic obsessions with loss and longing, along with a return to what we sometimes “cannot remember”. Uncomfortable places to live, her poems, like mine, arise from rupture and desire. This was her last book, but stories about exile and topics such as dislocation, identity, memory and belonging also preoccupied Alexander all her life, as did the language and form of self-invention and the temporary spaces. Like me, she is in many places at the same time and is characterized by broken and changing multiplicities – and yet strangely supported. – – Nominated by Shahilla Shariff

Aharon Appelfeld

Days of amazing brightness (in Hebrew)

Kinneret Zmora – Bitan Dvir, 2014

I read Aharon Appelfelds Yamim Shel Behirut Madhima (Days of amazing brightness) fast, but it has stayed deep inside me ever since. The novel is a solo journey home after the liberation of the concentration camps and there are glimpses of burned cars and abandoned military equipment along the streets, but the actual journey is a journey in the mind and memory of the narrator. The novel plunges us into a pre-war world in which the inner workings of a beloved mother are mentioned in intricate ways. He describes how she sought refuge in monasteries and churches as a child. I was thinking of the simple structure of a solo traveller’s trip, the convenience of interfaith material, and the intricate inner world of a young man traveling to a house and a mother who almost certainly no longer exists when I’m on my own Book work a long journey and a complex interfaith journey deep inside. – – Nominated by Aviya Kushner

Roberto Bolaño

2666

Trans. Natasha Wimmer

Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2008

For both literary and intimate reasons, my choice should be likely 2666by Roberto Bolaño. Although not my absolute favorite tip from him (Distant star, the wild detectivesNothing impressed me more than this monster when I was very young and it came out. Because it was impossible to write a book, even more so under the critical circumstances in which it was written. The author’s health waned and his literary appetite grew. He was almost out of time, so he chose the most ambitious mission he had ever attempted. That taught me a moving lesson about the power of fragility. To be aware of the value of every hour, every page, every conversation like this. – – Nominated by Andrés Neuman

Mia Couto

Sleepwalking Land

Trans. David Brookshaw

Snake Tail, 2006

My recommendation is the amazing novel Sleepwalking Land (2006), by Mozambican writer Mia Couto. An amazing multilayered metanarrative (a book within a book), historical (recent history mixed in with an attempt at mythical memory), hero quest, intergenerational trauma and healing. It is at the same time a detective story, a story of a war-torn country looking for self and healing, a story of people told from within and from a time before the rise of colonialism, a ghost story. This book opens the deepest empathy of the reader without sentimentalism. Even when translating into English, the language is sublime here; The form imitates orality within the boundaries of the written. This book gave me permission as a writer and hope for the work of African writers – to be the curators of the humanity of our continent. – – Nominated by Chris Abani

Boris Cyrulnik

Resilience: How your inner strength can free you from the past

Jeremy P. Tarcher / Pinguin, 2011

This book was sent to me by a nameless person, or at least I lost the letter and thus the name of the person who sent it to me a long time ago without being asked. It arrived after I wrote a treatise on my country, Sierra Leone, the war there, and the murder of my father, who was a political activist, in 1975. I read elasticity and recognized me in many of the survivors’ descriptions. Known in his native France, Cyrulnik escaped deportation to Nazi death camps as a child, joined the resistance and later became a psychologist specializing in the treatment of trauma. Cyrulnik believed that a person’s future is not determined by the events of his past. At a time of sacrifice, his ideas can have difficulty finding a purchase, although I’ve found that the truly traumatized find solace in his ideas. In addition, Cyrulnik’s work has influenced a lot of my own, especially my latest novel, happiness. – – Nominated by Aminatta Forna

John FitzGerald

The mind

Salmon poetry, 2011

I nominate The mind, by John FitzGerald, for the profound impact it had on me. The mind is a collection so profound, extraordinary, and almost unbearably beautiful that I keep going back to it to refill my mind. Its pattern is that of a circular labyrinth that takes the reader through a series of nine philosophical journeys to the heart or center of human consciousness. This metaphysical labyrinth is a powerful meditation device that not only brings comfort, but also transformation and healing. After reading it, I could never be the same The mind. At the beginning the poet is “removed from the center” and then experiences “fear”, “time”, “beauty and truth”, “death”, “I”, “prophecy”, “rules”, “choice”. and “A spirit like the wind” before “regaining the center”. It deals with issues of identity, time, loss, grief and death. This is a master’s work on the process of writing. The mind is a remarkable, elegant collection of transcendental, primal beauty by an impressive poet whose work continues to amaze. – – Nominated by Hélène Cardona

Amitav Ghosh

The glass palace

Random House, 2000

This is a novel set in Burma, India and Malaya that is a work of historical fiction. The story begins with the fall of the Konbaung dynasty in Mandalay and their subsequent exile to Ratnagiri, India; It is a comprehensive saga of the colonial and regional forces that shaped modern India, Myanmar, and Malaysia. My own work focuses on Asian societies and their transnational exchanges, and in this book Ghosh, despite some flaws that weighs on the second half, offers a master class on how to write commemoration, memory and history into a compelling work of fiction. – – Nominated by Dipika Mukherjee

Jack Gilbert

Refuse Heaven

Alfred A. Knopf, 2005

Jack Gilbert is a rare poet: relentlessly romantic, wildly honest and absolutely relatable. What I love most about him and get inspired is his uncanny ability to enjoy remembering – even if the memory is devastating and gray. “To make injustice the only measure of our attention,” he writes, “means to praise the devil.” I repeat this line to myself every day. – – Nominated by Sholeh Wolpé

Yaa Gyasi

Homegoing

Alfred A. Knopf, 2016

There are so many good books to think of; This choice seems almost impossible. Yaa Gyasis, however Homegoing is unique, a story that interweaves both the personal and the political, tracing the historical differences between two sisters on two different continents. Each chapter is self-contained and filled with new characters in a long line of generations. The language is evocative, poetic and brings us immediately into the narrative. Each character, however temporary, is treated with such care and tenderness that we must fall in love throughout the book. The elements of nature also emerge unexpectedly, and bodies and entire lines are both included and not included, captured and released on the page, and their stories are told from different perspectives. It is truly a storytelling masterpiece and an important literary work that bridges the gap between the African and African American experience. Beautifully written and haunted, it remains with me to this day. – – Nominated by Mahtem Shiferraw

John Keene

Counter-narratives

New directions, 2015

I can’t see exactly how John Keene’s book of short fictions influenced my writing, but I know it Counter-narratives put my brain back together, as did my first meeting with Jorge Luis Borges half a life ago. Keene is supernaturally precise and spacious, so cruel and so loving; every story in Counter-narratives is an act of reading or rereading history and literature, somehow alchemically bringing the reader of the book along as a participant. Every time I pick up this collection, I have the feeling that I am embarking on a ritual and that I can reliably and cyclically expect to transform. – – Nominated by Padma Viswanathan

Deborah Levy

Things I don’t want to know: While writing

Bloomsbury, 2014

“Living biographies” are the most poetic forms of fiction for writers because of their high demands on fairness, truthfulness and boldness. These powerful forces transform the writer in the most revealing and vulnerable ways. In my opinion, the centuries-old cost of prejudice and agony in the female collective consciousness make the living biography the most challenging work for women writers. That’s why I chose Things i don’t wanna know Deborah Levy as a courageous and highly talented writer manages to challenge George Orwell with her sharp, funny stories in a very humble but determined way. She realistically ensures and encourages that I am part of the family of female storytellers of human civilization, yet affirms that the equal world “in letters” is not really far away. – – Nominated by Buket Uzuner

Audre Lorde

The selected works

Edited by Roxane Gay

W. W. Norton, 2020

I have lived so much of my life in fear of speaking because of its possible repercussions. As a black woman and child of immigrants who grew up in our anti-black, anti-female patriarchal society, the message I got for just passing, let alone speaking, was that I was wrong. in the Sister OutsiderAudre Lorde, one of her essays, wrote about the importance of speaking through fear in spite of fear. “I have consistently come to believe that what is most important to me needs to be spoken, verbalized and shared,” writes Lorde. All the courage I have in my writing and in life begins with Audre Lorde and the writing that appears in her Selected Works. – – Nominated by Hope Wabuke

Dulce María Loynaz

A woman in her garden: selected poems

Trans. Judith Kerman

White Pine Press, 2002

There is a book of poems that I have come back to over and over again over the past two decades. I read again at least every three months A woman in her gardenby Dulce María Loynaz. It is a 2002 bilingual edition of White Pine Press, translated by Judith Kerman, with an exquisite afterword by Ruth Behar. My favorite poem around the world lives on pages 82 and 83: “En mi verso Soja Libre / In my poem I am free.” I cannot imagine that my own work would become a vision of freedom for young readers without this poem Experimentation exists. – – Nominated by Margarita Engle

Ian McEwan

atonement

Nan A. Talese / Doubleday, 2002

It may be a very obvious choice, but I can’t help but propose this novel – one of my greatest reading impressions among fiction for the past twenty years. It gives a reader an impressive (in the old sense) insight into the unfathomable nature of human consciousness. How do we make suggestions, what really defines our opinions, and why do our memories sometimes turn out to be wrong? In this novel, troubling and timely scientific questions of our psychology found artistic embodiment in a brilliant personal story of crime and self-punishment. – – Nominated by Alisa Ganieva

W. S. Merwin

The essentials W. S. Merwin

Ed. Michael Wiegers

Copper Canyon Press, 2017

I’ve been reading William Merwin’s work since 1970, so many of these poems were old friends. This is a really beautiful edition that starts with great photos. Poetry as a refuge – a respite – a silent grove of reflection. Williams’ crucial, exquisite poetry has never failed to transport a reader inward and outward at the same time, with conviction and clarity and a complete embrace of the mystery in which we live. It has encouraged me in the worst of times and always excited and expanded me. It made the breath bigger and the breath is what we need to say anything at all. – – Nominated by Naomi Shihab Nye

Haruki Murakami

Kafka on the bank

Trans. Philip Gabriel

Alfred A. Knopf, 2005

I never feel any influences in my writing. Influences flow underwater, and who knows what will happen when we allow our imagination to work independently. As a very versatile reader (science, philosophy, anthropology, psychology) everything speaks to me in different ways and certainly contributes to my fiction writing. Literature comes first, and there are some wonderful novels this century that I would like to recommend, but as for the influences, all I can think of is Kafka on the bankby Haruki Murakami. Written in 2002, I read it in Spanish translation around 2008. It was the first Murakami work I came across, and it hit me hard: surprising, enchanting, reinforcing a path I like to follow. A new twist on Alejo Carpentier’s “wonderful real”, the perfect Mise-en-Page the Iroquois dictum to see the world twice at the same time, looking ahead so as not to miss any small details, and looking sideways to catch the hasty shadows. – – Nominated by Luisa Valenzuela

M. NourbeSe Philip

Zong!

Wesleyan University Press, 2008

I discovered M. NourbeSe Philipps Zong! only after I wrote Abu Ghraib ariaswhen critics saw parallels in the work. Zong! is at the same time a brilliant long documentary poem and a kind of ritual exorcism of the demons of the slave trade. Built from the language of the legal document of Gregson v. Gilbert, Zong! brings to light the murder of Africans aboard a slave ship in 1781 for financial gain. The kidnapped and enslaved Africans were deliberately thrown overboard so that the owner of the Zong could benefit from his insurance policy. Philip’s visionary use of buried legal language to regain the voices of the lost is stark, elemental, and electrifying. It is poetry raised to the level of a truth commission. This work has launched a thousand poetic justice projects in the context of document restoration. – – Nominated by Philip Meters

W. G. Sebald

Austerlitz

Trans. Anthea Bell

Random House, 2001

This is the last of Sebald’s novels (like his others) to have a major impact on the excavation of the layered and suppressed history of World War II and the way that history thoroughly permeated the second half of the 20th century. His fiction is an act of resistance to oblivion – and the story of Jacques Austerlitz, who for much of his life did not even know that his parents were Prague Jews, is painfully realistic. Take, for example, the celebrated British playwright Tom Stoppard, whose parents, like Austerlitz’s, were Czech Jews and who only knew in the 1990s that he was Jewish and that many of his relatives had perished in the Holocaust. Sebald is important to me not only because of its profound and urgent subject, but also because of its stylistic importance, because he insists on an aesthetic rigor that avoids the omniscient narrator of the third person (among other things for moral reasons) and still finds a way forward for “realism”. In his hands the first person is not at the mercy of autofiction, is not solipsistic, is not restricted by hollow and artificial conventions of setting the scene. With Thomas Bernhard as a predecessor, Sebald Pounds took up his admonition to “make it new” and offered convincing, original possibilities for the novel form. – – Nominated by Claire Messud

William Trevor

Selected stories

Penguin, 2011

I devoured everything William Trevor (1928–2016) wrote, but his Selected stories remains an important influence on my own work. Reading the stories in this book reminds me why Trevor was a master of the genre. He has the uncanny ability to delve deep into a character’s emotions while remaining completely objective without sacrificing wide-angle views that show the character as part of a neighborhood, community, city, and even country (often Ireland, but also England). . I think Trevorites who have read stories like “The Piano Tuner’s Wives” and “The Potato Dealer” know what I’m talking about. With each of Trevor’s stories, I have the feeling that I not only experience the world he created, but also take part in the writing process sentence by sentence. He’s a writer and when he died a few years ago I felt like I lost a great teacher too. – – Nominated by Samrat Upadhyay

Mario Vargas Llosa

The festival of the goat

Trans. Edith Grossman

Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2001

Few writers have had such a long and productive career as Mario Vargas Llosa. He has been a very public figure for five decades and one of the most influential essayists, writers, and intellectuals in the world. He is the only living voice of the boom generation, and most of his books are considered modern classics. Vargas Llosa has long been obsessed with the creation of dictatorships. In 2000 he published La fiesta del chivo (Closely. The festival of the goat), a historical novel that explores the violent tradition of military power. The dictator in question is Rafael Leónidas Trujillo, an officer who took power in the Dominican Republic in 1930 and held it until he was murdered thirty-one years later. At first glance, Vargas Llosa seems to be studying the psychology of a tyrant: his vanity, non-existent morals and monstrous violence. But it does more than that. It goes deep into the collective memory of this continent. Therefore The festival of the goat was such an important influence in my work. Vargas Llosa’s technique is as sharp as a blade: with a complex narrative structure, he manages to combine the past and the present – as he did brilliantly Conversation in the cathedral– With the clear intention of reminding us that violence in Latin America is circular and endless. – – Nominated by Felipe Restrepo Pombo

Helen Vendler

Dickinson: Selected Poems and Commentaries

Belknap Press, 2010

I was always attracted to Emily Dickinson, but I wasn’t sure for many years. Reading her poetry felt daunting. With these 150 short, tight readings, I came to train myself at Dickinson by reading about their craft and typing prompts for myself. Vendler’s work comes close to magic. – – Nominated by Kimiko Hahn

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