Small Books, Large Questions: Lessons for Living

Some of the most esteemed works of modern fiction are also among the shortest. In this discussion-based course, we read six remarkable novels by J. L. Carr, Marguerite Yourcenar, Penelope Fitzgerald, William Maxwell, Nobel laureate Gabriel García Márquez, and Jenny Erpenbeck—writers who demonstrate how much can be accomplished in a small space. Published between 1929 and 2008, these books turn intimate stories into meditations on how we live and understand our lives. Again and again, they remind us that simple truths are often the hardest to know—about ourselves, about others, and about the choices and circumstances that make us who we are.