‘Telephone’

Published in three separate versions (the differences are small but noticeable), this 2020 novel continues Everett’s efforts to deconstruct contemporary fiction and reassemble it as something new and provocative, a literature of surprises, as it were. Here, that takes the form of what appears to be a work of campus fiction until it morphs into something more subtle and inchoate. Revolving around a geology professor named Zach Wells, the book (or trio of books) begins with retrenchment; its narrator is disassociated, except in regard to the caves where he carries out his research or when it comes to his adolescent daughter, Sarah, with whom he likes to play chess. When Sarah is diagnosed with a rare—and fatal—degenerative disorder called Batten disease, Zach’s life is thrown into disarray.

Graywolf Press TELEPHONE, BY PERCIVAL EVERETT

$15 at Bookshop

Credit: Graywolf Press

‘Telephone’

Graywolf Press TELEPHONE, BY PERCIVAL EVERETT

RELATED STORIES

Event Recap: Percival Everett Discusses 'Telephone' and Writing Novels

The Essential Nature of Entropy

The Unlikely Heroes of Percival Everett

‘The Sad Impermanence of Everything’

Three Versions of ‘Telephone’

Percival Everett’s Existential Hero

Excerpt: ‘Telephone’

Why You Should Read This: ‘Telephone’

Q&A: A Conversation with Percival Everett

California Book Club Past Selections