The Unreality of Memory

Absolutely stunning... a book for our times. * BookPage * The true mark of a timeless book is that it feels timely no matter when you read it; Elisa Gabbert's new essay collection - full of provocative, prescient meditations about politics and illness and memory and identity- has just that kind of exquisite urgency. Gabbert looks at both the past and present to contemplate and probe at what may become our future. Unafraid to explore the darkest reaches of our minds and behaviors, Gabbert still offers a glimmer of hope amid all the anxiety and terror of our age. After all, if there's writing like this to keep us company, maybe things aren't so bad after all? * Refinery 29 * [A] searing essay collection that takes place at the intersection of devastation, technology, and memory. In shattering essays, Gabbert explores if and how and why certain threats register more than others, and how even seemingly immutable facts are subject to spin from our imprecise recollections. * Vulture * Elisa Gabbert's The Unreality of Memory is one of those joyful books that send you to your notebook every page or so, desperate not to lose either the thought the author has deftly placed in your mind or the title of a work she has now compelled you to read. The essays encompass sickness and trauma, anesthesia and memory, politics and political apathy, but owing to the force of Gabbert's attention, the book remains determinedly cohesive. Written before COVID-19 altered all our lives so irretrievably, it is also a work of uncanny prescience. * Paris Review * Elisa Gabbert's essays are always worth reading ... Not necessarily uplifting, but personally, I find reading the meditations of a brilliant writer, particularly meditations about the dread I can't shake, both soothing and invigorating. * Lit Hub * Whatever the chosen topic, Gabbert's essays manage to be by turns poetic, philosophical, and exhaustively researched. This is a superb collection. * Publishers Weekly * Elisa Gabbert is one of my favorite writers, but how I wish her new book wasn't so timely! I mean this as the highest praise: I had to go lie down in between essays. * Austin Kleon, bestselling author of Steal Like an Artist * Amid impending disasters too vast even to be perceived, what can we do-cognitively, morally, and practically? Gabbert, a tenacious researcher and a ruthless self-examiner, probes this ultimate abstraction in her essays, goes past wordless dread and comes up with enough reasoned consideration to lead us through. Do you feel-and how can you not-as if your emotional endurance is exhausted by horrors already well underway? Then you should read this book. * Sarah Manguso, author of 300 Arguments * Wildly fun and casually brilliant, this book will make you feel happier while you're reading it and smarter once you finish. * Sandra Newman, author of The Heavens * With poetic precision, The Unreality of Memory lays bare the truth, beauty, and pain of living in our era. Examining disasters both manmade and natural, Gabbert's essays perform a beautiful autopsy of our fears, showing us what it means to exist in a time of eternal apocalypse. Breathtaking in its scope and thought and captivating prose, Unreality is a necessary and vital handbook for anyone experiencing the existential dread of everyday modern life. * Lyz Lenz, author of Belabored * Moves fluidly from disaster to dislocation to political upheaval, offering a kind of literary road map to our tumultuous era. * Kirkus, starred review * A work of sheer brilliance, beauty and bravery. * Andrew Sean Greer, author of Less *