You, or the Invention of Memory

"No one is smarter or funnier about the absurdities and agonies of modern love. Reading You is an affair to relish and remember."—Hilda Wolitzer

With each new novel, Jonathan Baumbach nudges the parameters of the novel—this time his narrator remembers, or invents, or imagines, the life of a not easily defined woman known only as You. It's another great look at the idea of love and the many various holds it can take.

Jonathan Baumbach is the author of fourteen books of fiction, and has also published over ninety stories in such places as Esquire and Boulevard.

Jonathan Baumbach: Jonathan Baumbach is the author of 14 books of fiction, including You, or The Invention of Memory, On The Way To My Father’s Funeral: New and Selected Stories, B, a novel, D-Tours, Separate Hours, Chez Charlotte and Emily, The Life and Times of Major Fiction, Reruns, Babble and A Man to Conjure With. He has also published over 90 stories published in such places as Esquire, Open City and Boulevard.

Jonathan, co-founder of The Fiction Collective in 1973 (it was reinvented as FC2 in 1988), the first fiction writers cooperative in America, has seen his work widely praised. His short stories have been anthologized in Best American Short Stories, O.Henry Prize, and The Best of Tri-Quarterly. The New York Times Book Review referred to him in 2004 as ?. . . an underappreciated writer. He employs a masterfully dispassionate, fiercely intelligent narrative voice whose seeming objectivity is always a faltering front for secret passion and despair."