Ten Favorite Swansongs of Literature
(alphabetically by author, with a preference for books that represent a high point (if not always the absolute pinnacle) in the writers’ bibliographies, and including a few books that were released posthumously, but only if the writer saw them mostly to completion before dying)
A Death in the Family by James Agee
Poem Strip by Dino Buzzati
The Transmigration of Timothy Archer by Philip K. Dick
We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson
The Largesse of the Sea Maiden: Stories by Denis Johnson
Elegy: Poems by Larry Levis
The Luminous Novel by Mario Levrero
The Hour of the Star by Clarice Lispector
Love’s Work: A Reckoning With Life by Gillian Rose
The Pale King by David Foster Wallace
— September 5, 2021