10:04

Upheaval is a good choice word for the year that the narrator of 10:04 has faced: unexpected literary success, a serious maybe fatal medical diagnosis, and a request from his best friend to help her conceive a child. As superstorms batter New York and social tensions rise, he grapples with his own mortality and the weight of future parenthood in an uncertain – might soon be underwater– world.

With wit and intellectual depth, Ben Lerner blurs the boundaries between fiction and memoir, offering a sharply observed meditation on time, creativity, and what it means to live when the future feels increasingly fragile.

Named One of the Best Books of the Year by The New Yorker and The New York Times Book Review.