Frog - by Anne Fadiman (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

A new collection of evocative personal essays from one of America's most beloved nonfiction writers, Anne Fadiman.

In Frog, Anne Fadiman returns to her favorite genre, the essay, of which she is one of our most celebrated practitioners. Ranging in subject matter from her deceased frog, to archaic printer technology, to the fraught relationship between Samuel Taylor Coleridge and his son Hartley, these essays unlock a whole world--one both mundane and mysterious--through sly observation and brilliant wit.

The diverse subjects of Frog are bound together by the quality of Fadiman's attention, and subtly, they come to form a slantwise portrait of the artist, a writer dedicated to chronicling the world as it changes around her, in ways small and large.

Review Quotes

"Anne Fadiman consistently produces essays that are simultaneously erudite and entertaining . . . Highly polished gems . . . It's hard to find fault with this collection, except that one wishes it contained even more of her consistently engaging writing."
--Harvey Freedenberg, Shelf Awareness

"[Frog] collects seven well-crafted, content-rich essays. Fadiman shares a trick with my favorite essayists: She gets me absorbed in subjects I never thought to think of."
--Scott Pfeiffer, Newcity Lit

"Fadiman displays sleek dexterity galore, excelling at agile gearshifting over a hodgepodge of subjects . . . [Her] sentences clock in with rhythmic precision, paced by a sophisticated sensibility driven by curiosity, affability, and wide-ranging sympathy."
--Bill Marx, The Arts Fuse

"Fadiman is one of our best personal essayists, and I've been excited about her forthcoming collection since stumbling across an excerpt from 'Frog' in Harper's two years back. This poignant chronicle of Bunky, the family's African clawed frog, is a capacious look at what it means to love a pet. Other pieces in this open-hearted project consider Samuel Taylor Coleridge's parenthood prospects and bygone printing technologies."
--Literary Hub (Most Anticipated Books of 2026)

"Witty, sometimes wistful, always sharply observed pieces . . . Deft [and] graceful . . . A delightful gathering."
--Kirkus Reviews

"Fadiman is a joy to read for the etched-glass precision of her language and the warmth of her candor and wit. In each dynamic and sharp-as-a-pin essay, Fadiman turns curious facts into provocative and enlightening thoughts and feelings."
-- Donna Seaman, Booklist

"In Frog, Anne Fadiman writes, with equal insight and clarity, about subjects that range from an unfortunate family pet to a doomed expedition to the South Pole. I'd be hard-pressed to name another writer whose work is so humane, penetrating, and gorgeously wrought. There are lines in this book I'd consider having tattooed onto my chest."
--Michael Cunningham, author of Day

"Affecting and often humorous . . . Fadiman has a knack for finding the extraordinary in the ordinary, using everyday objects to explore such profound themes as grief, loss, and personal growth . . . Readers will be captivated."
--Publishers Weekly

"Fadiman is a generous writer, and the parts here let us into her world--her family, her pets, her students, her printers, and her particular obsessions with grammar and polar exploration . . . I read her essays, one at a time, as a break from our present chaos, the gift of fine writing delivered in less than an hour."
--Ann Fabian, The National Book Review

About the Author

Anne Fadiman is the author of The Wine Lover's Daughter (2017), a memoir about her father. Her first book, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down (1997), won the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and the Salon Book Award. Fadiman has also written two other essay collections, Ex Libris and At Large and At Small, and edited Rereadings: Seventeen Writers Revisit Books They Love (all published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux). She is Professor in the Practice of English and Francis Writer in Residence at Yale.