1979NBA 1982
So Long, See You Tomorrow
William Maxwell · 1908–2000 · United States
Why it matters
An old man reconstructs an Illinois farm murder from his own boyhood, and the friendship he abandoned in its wake, in a spare meditation on guilt and memory's failures. Maxwell's late masterpiece is American fiction's quietest tragedy.
At a glance
psychological novelfamily saga
Difficulty 5/10slow pace135 pagesA narrator's uncertain memory circles the same trauma from shifting angles.
Deep dive
A fifty-year-old murder gets solved by a novel that admits, on nearly every page, it's inventing half of what it tells you.
Where to go next
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