"Clever and stimulating, this short novel about memory, fatherhood, and technology sits with a fascinating yet unreliable narrator."
This thought-provoking short novel encourages the reader to consider the reliability of memory and recollections, the meaning of fatherhood, and our reliance on technology and mobile phones. The narrator, a writer, interviews his 90-year-old mentor but fails to tell him that his recording device isn’t working and carries on with the interview.
A QR code can be found at the beginning, linking to the author Ben Lerner introducing his novel. Three hotels feature in three sections of the book in Rhode Island, Madrid, and Geneva. Each shift in location was explained yet I still felt a momentary disconnection until I discovered who the narrator was with.
Recollection and fact don’t often walk hand in hand so while narrated, dialogue features heavily which left me feeling unsettled as the narrator had already proven his unreliability. Focusing on human connection and our reliance with technology, Transcription is a provocative, intense and thoughtful read.
A writer returns to his college town, where he is to conduct what will be the final published interview with Thomas, his ninety-year-old mentor. But after he drops his smartphone in the hotel sink, he arrives at Thomas's house with no recording device - a fact he is mysteriously unable to confess.
| Primary Genre | Modern and Contemporary Fiction |
| Other Genres: | |
| Recommendations: |
A writer returns to his college town, where he is to conduct what will be the final published interview with Thomas, his ninety-year-old mentor. But after he drops his smartphone in the hotel sink, he arrives at Thomas's house with no recording device - a fact he is mysteriously unable to confess.
Transcription features in the following genres: Liz Robinson's Picks of the Month, General Fiction, Literary Fiction, Modern and Contemporary Fiction, Shorter Reads, Modern and Contemporary Fiction, Modern and Contemporary Fiction, Narrative theme: Social issues
Hardback, Paperback. £13.49, down from the £14.99 cover price. In Stock.
Transcription was written by Ben Lerner and published by Granta Books
Transcription has 144 pages
£13.49, reduced from £14.99. In Stock.
