—for me the greatest, and one of the most perfect works of fiction ever written
Ill Seen Ill Said and Worstward Ho, by Samuel Beckett
—yes
Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad
—sublime
Death in Venice, by Thomas Mann
—of course
The Hour of the Star, by Clarice Lispector
—haunting and unforgettable
Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street, by Herman Melville
The Left Handed Woman, by Peter Handke
The Lover, by Marguerite Duras
Ethan Frome, by Edith Wharton
Miss Lonelyhearts, by Nathanael West
—though I haven’t read it in years
Chronicle of a Death Foretold and No One Writes to the Colonel, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
A Christmas Carol
—I love Dickens
On the Mountain, Amras, and Walking by Thomas Bernhard
—the maestro!
Heinrich von Ofterdingen by Novalis
Carole Maso is an English professor at Brown University. Her published work includes novels, short fiction, essays, journals, and biographies. She is the author of Ghost Dance, The Art Lover, AVA, The American Woman in the Chinese Hat, Aureole, Defiance, Break Every Rule, The Room Lit By Roses, and Beauty is Convulsive: The Passion of Frida Kahlo. She has been awarded many grants and fellowships, including grants from the New York Foundation for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts.
JOHN MADERA—Writer, Editor, Publisher 