263 It is impossible to touch
eternity with one hand
and life with the other
The Temple of the Golden Pavilion,
Yukio Mishima264 He was beat—the root,
the soul of beatific
On the Road, Jack Kerouac266 What is good among one
people is an abomination
with others
Things Fall Apart, Chinua
Achebe270 Even wallpaper has a better
memory than human beings
The Tin Drum, Günter Grass272 I think there’s just one kind
of folks. Folks.
To Kill a Mockingbird,
Harper Lee274 Nothing is lost if one has the
courage to proclaim that all is
lost and we must begin anew
Hopscotch, Julio Cortázar276 He had decided to live forever
or die in the attempt
Catch-22, Joseph Heller277 Everyday miracles and the
living past
Death of a Naturalist,
Seamus Heaney278 There’s got to be something
wrong with us. To do what
we did
In Cold Blood, Truman Capote280 Ending at every moment but
never ending its ending
One Hundred Years of Solitude,
Gabriel García Márquez286 Further readingCONTEMPORARY
LITERATURE
1970–PRESENT296 Our history is an aggregate
of last moments
Gravity’s Rainbow, Thomas
Pynchon298 You are about to begin reading
Italo Calvino’s new novel
If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler,
Italo Calvino300 To understand just one life
you have to swallow the world
Midnight’s Children, Salman
Rushdie306 Freeing yourself was one
thing; claiming ownership
of that freed self was another
Beloved, Toni Morrison310 Heaven and Earth were
in turmoil
Red Sorghum, Mo Yan311 You could not tell a story like
this. A story like this you
could only feel
Oscar and Lucinda, Peter Carey312 A historical vision, the
outcome of a multicultural
commitment
Omeros, Derek Walcott313 I felt lethal, on the verge
of frenzy
American Psycho, Bret
Easton Ellis314 Quietly they moved down
the calm and sacred river
A Suitable Boy, Vikram Seth318 It’s a very Greek idea, and a
profound one. Beauty is terror
The Secret History, Donna Tartt319 What we see before us is just
one tiny part of the world
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle,
Haruki Murakami320 Perhaps only in a world of
the blind will things be
what they truly are
Blindness, José Saramago322 English is an unfit medium
for the truth of South Africa
Disgrace, J. M. Coetzee324 Every moment happens twice:
inside and outside, and they
are two different histories
White Teeth, Zadie Smith326 The best way of keeping
a secret is to pretend there
isn’t one
The Blind Assassin, Margaret
Atwood328 There was something his
family wanted to forget
The Corrections,
Jonathan Franzen330 It all stems from the same
nightmare, the one we
created together
The Guest, Hwang Sok-yong331 I regret that it takes a life to
learn how to live
Extremely Loud and Incredibly
Close, Jonathan Safran Foer332 Further reading340 GLOSSARY
344 INDEX
352 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS9
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