Prose & Poetry

Vladimir Nabokov Laughter in the Dark stands as a landmark examination of obsession, deception, and the labyrinth of perception through the story of a doomed art critic and his destructive infatuation. Main themes include blindness (literal and metaphorical),...

Iris Murdoch The Black Prince is an intricate and psychologically charged literary fiction by Iris Murdoch that chronicles the tumultuous inner life and creative ambitions of its central character, Bradley Pearson. Main themes include the pursuit of artistic...

Walter Kirn Up in the Air explores the journey of an itinerant professional navigating uncertainty and rootlessness in the modern world. Main themes include alienation, identity, impermanence, corporate culture, and emotional connectivity. This unique work dissects...

Clarice Lispector Agua Viva explores the flow of consciousness, selfhood, sensation, and language through an innovative, lyrical text. Core themes include interiority, time, identity, perception, and artistic creation. By erasing boundaries between author and reader,...

Bret Easton Ellis Glamorama marks a pivotal work within contemporary fiction, dissecting the volatile intersection between fame, violence, and media-staged existence. Central themes include celebrity culture, fractured identity, simulated reality, consumerism, and...

Elif Batuman The Idiot is a celebrated novel that follows a linguistically inquisitive protagonist through a landscape of academic, cultural, and personal discovery. Main themes include language, self-construction, identity, alienation, and the shaping influence of...

Somerset Maugham Theatre examines the entwined lives and layered identities of performers navigating ambition, love, and self-definition against the dynamic stage of British theatre in the 1930s. Main themes include public and private masks, creative transformation,...

Paul Auster The New York Trilogy designates a trio of interlaced stories by Paul Auster, widely credited with transforming the detective form into a labyrinthine exploration of self and narrative. Main themes span identity, language breakdown, metafiction, urban...

Hermann Hesse Steppenwolf presents Harry Haller’s psychological odyssey through alienation, divided identity, and the quest for meaning. Main themes include duality of the self, modern estrangement, transformation, interplay of art and reality, as well as spiritual...

John Banville The Book of Evidence describes a psychological exploration of crime and self-perception through the eyes of a privileged narrator. Main themes include unreliable narration, guilt and morality, identity formation, artistic creation, and the boundaries...

Elias Canetti Auto-da-Fe is a modernist work by Nobel laureate Elias Canetti, renowned for its psychological intensity, linguistic power, and innovative narrative structure. Major themes span intellectual isolation, obsession, identity dissolution, paranoia, and the...

Albertine Sarrazin Astragal stands as a vivid chronicle of escape, autonomy, and marginal existence, drawn from the intense lived experience of its author. Core themes include bodily vulnerability, agency, forbidden desire, power dynamics, and the search for...