Benjamin Lytal is the author of the novel A Map of Tulsa. He teaches fiction at the University of Chicago Graham School.

First Flight

The Nigerian-American novelist’s first novel (now published here after ‘Open City’) shows a writer finding his way but already fearless, nimble, and surprising.

Fiction Problems

What do we talk about when we talk about the books that mean something to us? Benjamin Lytal ponders while reading two new books (from Rebecca Mead and W. G. Sebald) about books.

We all know about Tolstoy, Chekhov, and Dostoevsky, but what about their compatriot, Nikolai Leskov? Benjamin Lytal on his elusive genius.

'A Thousand Pardons'

In his new novel of forgiveness, A Thousand Pardons, Jonathan Dee reflects on our permanent guilt, but this effort doesn't engage with class anxiety as fully as his last. Benjamin Lytal reviews.