Acclaimed literary novelist Franzen gathers together essays and speeches written mostly in the past five years. The results document the progress of a mature mind wrestling with literature, and with some of the most important issues of our day.

Acclaimed literary novelist Franzen gathers together essays and speeches written mostly in the past five years. The results document the progress of a mature mind wrestling with literature, and with some of the most important issues of our day.

In this incisive collection of speeches and essays, Jonathan Franzen returns with renewed vigor to the themes, both human and literary, that have long preoccupied him. Whether recalling his violent encounter with bird poachers in Cyprus, examining his feelings about the suicide of his friend and rival David Foster Wallace, or offering a moving and witty take on the ways that technology has changed how people express their love, these pieces deliver on Franzen's implicit promise to conceal nothing. A remarkable and revelatory work from one of our greatest living novelists, Farther Away traces the progress of a unique and mature mind wrestling with itself, with literature, and with some of the most important issues of our day.