An Oral History of Atlantis - by Ed Park (Hardcover)

About the Book

"In 'Machine City,' a college student's role in a friend's movie causes lines to blur between his character and his true self. In 'Slide to unlock,' a man comes to terms with his life, via the passwords he struggles to remember in a moment of extremis. And in 'Weird menace,' a director and faded movie star discuss science fiction, memory, and lost loves on a commentary track for a film from the '80s that neither seems to remember all that well. In Ed Park's utterly original collection, An oral history of Atlantis, characters question the fleetingness of youth and art, reckon with the consequences of the everyday, and find solace in the absurd, the beautiful, and the sublime. Throughout, Park deploys his trademark wit to create a world both strikingly recognizable and delightfully other. All together, these fifteen stories have much to say about the meaning--and transitory nature--of our lives. And they are proof positive that Ed Park is one of the most insightful and imaginative writers working today"--Provided by publishe

Book Synopsis

Gilt-edged stories that slice clean through the mundanity of modern life, from the author of Same Bed Different Dreams, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize

"Ed Park is one of the funniest writers working today, and among the most humane."--Kaveh Akbar, author of Martyr!

In "Machine City" a college student's chance role in a friend's movie blurs the line between his character and his true self. (Is he a robot?) In "Slide to Unlock" a man comes to terms with his life via the passwords he struggles to remember in extremis. (What's his mom's name backward?) And in "Weird Menace" a director and faded movie star gab about science fiction, bad costume choices, and lost loves on a commentary track for a B-film from the '80s that neither remembers all that well.

In Ed Park's utterly original collection, An Oral History of Atlantis, characters bemoan their fleeting youth, focus on their breathing, meet cute, break up, write book reviews, translate ancient glyphs, bid on stuff online, whale watch, and once in a while find solace in the sublime. Throughout, Park deploys his trademark wit to create a world both strikingly recognizable and delightfully other. Spanning a quarter century, these sixteen stories tell the absurd truth about our lives. They capture the moment when the present becomes the past--and are proof positive that Ed Park is one of the most imaginative and insightful writers working today.

Review Quotes

"To speak of Park's creativity is also to speak of his humanity--empathy is a function of the imagination, of course, and it makes sense that a mind capable of dreaming these worlds and sister verses would also be able to endow them with spirits as vivid and complex as our own. It's dazzling, this steady carousel of delight and stunned awe. Park is one of the funniest writers working today, and among the most humane."--Kaveh Akbar, author of Martyr!

"What's the collective noun for a school of stories so bright and brilliant, they ripple with humor, compassion, and wonder? Call them an 'Ed Park.' An Oral History of Atlantis will continue to delight us, long after the flood."--Samantha Hunt, author of The Dark Dark

"Ed Park is a magician of storytelling. These stories explore the multiplicity of time and space--artistic, historical, and psychological--and confront once and again the shapeshifting border between reality and unreality. With sly humor and deep understanding, Park makes the reader laugh from disquiet, and tear up from being seen."--Yiyun Li, author of Wednesday's Child

"Funny, tragic, winsome screwball science-fiction prose poetry of 'maximum lexical density' that's pure pleasure to read."--Sarah Manguso, author of Liars

"An Oral History of Atlantis is a snapshot of who we are and where we are as well as an offbeat map to where we might dare to go. The stories are mordant, inventive, heartbreaking, and above all else, profoundly human, and I'm already looking forward to a re-read."--Paul Tremblay, New York Times bestselling author of Horror Movie

"The James Joyce of Korean-American literature, and of our times."--Ilyon Woo, author of Master Slave Husband Wife

"Park's delightful tales, which are driven by provocative ideas, strange occurrences, and gripping plots, pay tribute to the legacy of Kurt Vonnegut in the best ways. This pitch-perfect collection will linger in readers' minds for a long time."--Publishers Weekly, starred review

"Park infuses his debut story collection with the same extraordinary inventiveness that made his novel Same Bed Different Dreams (2023) a Pulitzer Prize finalist. . . . Throughout his 16 stories, [he] deftly upends quotidian expectations, encourages discomfort, and presents surreality with biting humor."--Booklist, starred review

About the Author

Ed Park is the author of the novels Same Bed Different Dreams, which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Fiction, was named a Top Ten Book of the Year by Publishers Weekly and was a New York Times Notable Book; and Personal Days, a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award. His short fiction has appeared in The New Yorker, McSweeney's, Vice, Harvard Review, and other periodicals and anthologies, and he writes regularly for The New York Review of Books, Harper's, The Atlantic, Bookforum, and elsewhere. Ed was a founding editor of The Believer and the former literary editor of The Voice Literary Supplement, and has also worked in publishing. Born in Buffalo, he lives in Manhattan with his family, and currently teaches writing at Princeton University.