It's here! Browse the 2024 Penguin Christmas gift guide
The David Foster Wallace Reader

The David Foster Wallace Reader

Summary

'One of the most dazzling luminaries of contemporary American fiction' Sunday Times

'The most commanding and exciting and inventive rhetorical virtuosity of any writer alive... [He] nailed it like nobody else ever had' Jonathan Franzen

'[He was] first among us. The most talented, most daring, most energetic and original, the funniest... This man got inside the world's mind and changed it for the better' George Saunders

'Radical, impassioned, heart-and brain-stretching... His talent was so obviously great it confused people' Zadie Smith

Discover one of the most celebrated writers of our age - the visionary author of Infinite Jest andA Supposedly Fun Thing I Will Never Do Again

From genre-defining reportage to genre-breaking fiction, David Foster Wallace captured the human experience as no-one else has - in all its multiplicity, sorrow and tenderness, wit and irony and deep, dazzling truth.

Penguin presents the very best of his collected fiction and nonfiction, including extracts from his most famous novels, short stories and iconic essays such as 'Consider the Lobster'. Alongside these classic pieces is exclusive, previously unpublished work, and critical contributions from twelve prominent authors and thinkers, all commissioned specifically for this collection.

Reviews

  • One of the most dazzling luminaries of contemporary American fiction
    Sunday Times

About the author

David Foster Wallace

David Foster Wallace, who died in 2008, was the author of the acclaimed novels Infinite Jest and The Broom of the System. His final novel, The Pale King, was published posthumously in 2011. He is also the author of the short-story collections Oblivion, Brief Interviews with Hideous Men and Girl with Curious Hair, and his non-fiction includes several essay collections and the full-length work Everything and More.
Learn More

More from this Author

Sign up to the Penguin Newsletter

For the latest books, recommendations, author interviews and more