10:04
ABOUT
THE BOOK
In the last year, the narrator of 10:04 has enjoyed unlikely literary success, has been diagnosed with a potentially fatal medical condition, and has been asked by his best friend to help her conceive a child. In a New York of increasingly frequent superstorms and social unrest, he must reckon with his own mortality and the prospect of fatherhood in a city that might soon be underwater.
Lerner captures what it’s like to be alive now, during the twilight of an empire, when the difficulty of imagining a future is changing our relationship to both the present and the past.
NOMINATING LIBRARY COMMENTS
10:04 is a singular experience, an out of the box, and high concept, but manages to avoid being too clever for its own good. The writing is pristine and you feel smarter just by having read it.
Crossing the line between author and narrator, this sweeping look at modern city life evokes Walt Whitman as it takes its characters between conception, life and death, while exploring the writing life.