97 196 Words: Essays

About this book

A selection of the best short work by Frances greatest living nonfiction writer A New York Times Notable Books of 2020 No one writes nonfiction like Emmanuel Carrre. Although he takes cues from such literary heroes as Truman Capote and Janet Malcolm Carrre has over the course of his career reinvented the form in a search for truth in all its guises. Dispensing with the rules of genre he takes what he needs from every available form or disciplinebe it theology historiography fiction reportage or memoirand fuses it under the pressure of an inimitable combination of passion curiosity intellect and wit. With an oeuvre unique in world literature for its blend of empathy and playfulness Carrre stands as one of our most distinctive and important literary voices. 97 196 Words introduces Carrres shorter works to an English-language audience. Featuring more than thirty extraordinary essays written over an illustrious twenty-five-year period of Carrres creative life this collection shows an exceptional mind at work. Spanning continents histories and personal relationships and treating everything from American heroin addicts to the writing of In Cold Blood from the philosophy of Philip K. Dick to a single haunting sentence in a minor story by H. P. Lovecraft from Carrres own botched interview with Catherine Deneuve to the week he spent following the future French president Emmanuel Macron 97 196 Words considers the divides between truth reality and our shared humanity as it explores remarkable events and eccentric lives including Carrres own.