Idlewild Books
Each month I pick a theme, and my friend David Del Vecchio selects 5 books that are somehow related to that theme. David's shop, Idlewild Books, is ingeniously creative. Organized by country rather than by author, the bookstore features fiction and non-fiction from all parts of the world, including new and classic works in translation, travel guides, language-learning books, and maps.
JULY: A Fall from Certainty
Years ago, there was a billboard near Camden Yards in downtown Baltimore that read—Death, Taxes, and Cal Ripken Jr.—It was a comforting reminder of certainty in the face of uncertain times.
The books this month capture the various certainties and inescapable ambiguities that surround our day-to-day lives—the inevitability of death, the struggle against complacency, and the passions that rule our lives and shape history. Alejandro Zambra’s story of a young father nervously waiting for his wife to return home from art class, Andreas Maier’s tale of a town overtaken by an unexplained crime, Nadeem Aslam’s novel about the disappearance of two lovers who broke Islamic law to live in sin, Jorge Volpi’s epic novel exploring greed and disillusionment, and the recently reissued novel Balcony of Europe about a complacent young wife who begins an affair.
Click on the individual titles below to read detailed descriptions. For more information on these or any other books contact Idlewild Books at orders@idlewildbooks.com or visit Idlewild at 12 West 19th street, NYC.