52 Men

52 fictionalized episodes with men. “Simple and ingenious . . . gets at the truth of how we experience, perceive, and remember romantic encounters.” —Los Angeles Review of Books

From a writer who master poet Seamus Heaney described as one “who risks much both stylistically and emotionally” comes 52 Men. Taut, spare and highly compressed autobiographical fiction for the mobile age, it is immensely funny and sexually charged.

In contemporary literary miniatures from a few lines to a few pages, Manhattan-raised Elise McKnight describes the men in her life who gradually reveal her: high-profile cultural leaders, writers and celebrities, as well as the down-to-earth waiter, student and police officer. Fifty-two strange, romantic and sexual interludes and relationships spark to life and disappear in the wind, leaving the reader always asking: What is Elise’s power? What does she want and will she ever get it? Does she have a secret and if so, what is it?

With surprising, sometimes shocking and moving cameos by figures from tabloids and the news: Jay Carney, Jonathan Franzen, Lou Reed, Michael Stipe; and encounters with artists, financiers, and a boxer who reads Neruda at the Turkish baths.

“I’m not sure I’ve ever read a story of a life that’s both so moving and told with such breathtaking economy and precision. 52 Men gave me goose bumps again and again.” —Kurt Andersen, New York Times–bestselling author of Evil Geniuses

“A haunting and haunted book . . . harsh and sweet and very funny, in spots as hard to read as it is hard to put down.” —Will Eno, playwright and author of Thom Pain (based on nothing)