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Leaving the Atocha Station

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( 18,535 ratings, 2,223 reviews)
Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
Leaving the Atocha Station by Ben Lerner follows the story of a young American poet, Adam Gordon, living in Madrid on a fellowship. As he navigates the city's cultural and artistic landscape, he struggles with feelings of fraudulence and inadequacy. The novel explores themes of authenticity, language, and the disjunction between art and reality in an introspective and thoughtful manner.
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Format: Paperback / softback
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Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

If you appreciate a novel that delves into the mind of a young poet grappling with authenticity and self-doubt during a fellowship in Spain, you'll likely enjoy this book. Its introspective narrative and exploration of art and communication make it appealing for those who relish character-driven stories with philosophical undertones.

Book Hero thinking about your next read

Veering between the comic and tragic, the self-contemptuous and the inspired, Leaving the Atocha Station is a dazzling introduction to one of the smartest, funniest and most audacious writers of a generation.

Veering between the comic and tragic, the self-contemptuous and the inspired, Leaving the Atocha Station is a dazzling introduction to one of the smartest, funniest and most audacious writers of a generation

Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

Leaving the Atocha Station follows Adam Gordon, a brilliant yet highly unreliable young American poet on a prestigious fellowship in Madrid. He struggles to establish his sense of self and his attitude towards art.

Fuelled by strong coffee and self-prescribed tranquillizers, Adam's 'research' soon becomes a meditation on the possibility of authenticity. He finds himself increasingly troubled by the uncrossable distance between himself and the world around him.

It's not just his imperfect grasp of Spanish that concerns him, but the underlying suspicion that his relationships, his reactions, and his entire personality are just as fraudulent as his poetry.

Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?

Leaving the Atocha Station by Ben Lerner has been highly praised as a remarkable and funny debut novel. It's noted for its comic yet precise depiction of a young American poet in Madrid, exploring themes of art and existential doubt. Reviewers appreciate its sharp intelligence, humour, and introspective depth, marking it as a significant and stylish work in contemporary literature.

Book Hero reading reviews

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781847086914

Publisher: Granta Books

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 07 March 2013

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Granta Books

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 13.0mm

Width: 130.0mm

Height: 200.0mm

Weight: 139g

Pages: 192

About the Author

Born in Kansas in 1979, BEN LERNER is the author of three books of poetry, The Lichtenberg Figures, Angle of Yaw, and Mean Free Path. He has been a finalist for the National Book Award, a Fulbright Scholar in Spain, and the recipient of a Howard Foundation Fellowship. In 2011 he became the first American to win the Munster State Prize for International Poetry. He teaches in the writing program at Brooklyn College. This is his first novel.

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