David Ebershoff is the author of three novels, The 19th Wife, Pasadena, and The Danish Girl, and a short-story collection, The Rose City. His fiction has won a number of awards, including the Rosenthal Foundation Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the Lambda Literary Award, and has been translated into ten languages to critical acclaim. Ebershoff has taught creative writing at New York University and Princeton and currently teaches in the graduate writing program at Columbia University. For many years he was the publishing director of the Modern Library and now is an editor-at-large at Random House. He lives in New York City.
Lit Riffs (2007) Writers 'Cover' Songs They Love edited by Matthew Miele
David Ebershoff recommends
Every Story Is a Love Story (2026) Imbolo Mbue "The unforgettable story of a community on the wrong end of Western greed, How Beautiful We Were will enthral you, appal you and show you what is possible when a few people stand up and say 'this is not right'. A masterful novel by a spellbinding writer engaged with the most urgent questions of our day."
Six Days in Rome (2022) Francesca Giacco "If Sally Rooney and Frances Mayes co-wrote a novel in an Airbnb near the Spanish Steps, it might read something like this."
Little Foxes Took Up Matches (2022) Katya Kazbek "A Russian satire, a queer myth, an enchanting coming of age story--Little Foxes Took Up Matches is one of the most original, and charming, debuts I've read in some time. Katya Kazbek writes with wit, heart, and the needle-prick of life."
Anonymous Sex (2022) Hillary Jordan and Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan "n anthology in the form of a parlor game, Anonymous Sex invites readers into the imaginations of some our best novelists, letting us marvel at their talents and desires while wondering who wrote what and if it even matters. A book of pleasures and secrets-- and great fun to read."
The Torqued Man (2022) Peter Mann "Writing with intelligence, style, and wit, Peter Mann has created two unforgettable characters and braided them together in a thrilling World War II story unlike any other."
A Country for Dying (2020) Abdellah Taïa "Abdellah Taïa is one of the most original and necessary voices in world literature. ... With each novel Taïa grows as an artist and expands our knowledge of what it means to be an outsider inside the Muslim world."
The End of the Day (2020) Bill Clegg "A mesmerizing book about family and memory and friendship and the long arc of life. I've loved every book by Bill Clegg, but The End of the Day might be my favorite because these characters, these quietly remarkable women, remind me of the epic lives hidden within all of us. Reading it is like studying a stained-glass window up close, each piece bright and sharply cut, but when you step back and see it as a whole you discover a large, beautiful, mysterious work of art."
I Know You Know Who I Am (2020) Peter Kispert "Engrossing, unsettling, full of characters in search of their place in the world, I Know You Know Who I Am reminds me in the best possible way of the debut collections of Mary Gaitskill and Adam Haslett, in tone and talent and the promise of what will come next."
If You Leave Me (2018) Crystal Hana Kim "An engrossing story of love, family, and war on the Korean peninsula. Timely and timeless--a beautiful debut."
The Verdun Affair (2018) Nick Dybek "Love, war, the mysteries of who we are -- it's all in The Verdun Affair. A masterful novel that will fizz your brain and enchant your heart."
Next Year in Havana (2018) (Cuba Saga, book 1) Chanel Cleeton "A vivid, transporting novel. Next Year in Havana is about journeys—into exile, into history, and into questions of home and identity. It's an engrossing read."
Oliver Loving (2018) Stefan Merrill Block "One reason we read fiction is to know the lives of others as well as our own. In OLIVER LOVING Stefan Merrill Block writes about a West Texas family and community so wholly and honestly, and with such poetic beauty, that their dreams and sorrows become ours. This is a dazzling, psychologically astute, scientifically engaged novel about love, loss, and the mysteries of the mind. Through one family's tragedy Block dares to ask some of the most profound questions of what it means to be alive."
The Revolution of Marina M. (2017) (Revolution of Marina M., book 1) Janet Fitch "The Revolution of Marina M. takes us deep inside the Russian Revolution and lets us witness it through a pair of remarkable eyes. Marina is a female Zhivago - a poet who uses her intelligence, her passion, and her love of language to interpret and survive the political turmoil around her. Janet Fitch is a wonderful writer and this might be her best book."
The Windfall (2017) Diksha Basu "A comedy of manners for the globalized 21st century, Delhi Riche is equal parts heart and laugh by a writer who is a new star."
The Impossible Fortress (2017) Jason Rekulak "A love letter to the 1980s, adolescence, technology, nerd-dom, and Vanna White, The Impossible Fortress will make you laugh and remind you of how much is possible when you're fourteen."
