Books by Jesse Ball

Census

by Jesse Ball

(230 reviews)

'CENSUS is a vital testament to selfless love; a psalm to commonplace miracles; and a mysterious evolving metaphor. So kind, it aches.' David Mitchell, author of Cloud Atlas A father and son who are census takers journey... See More

How to Set a Fire and Why

by Jesse Ball

(196 reviews)

A startling, subversive novel about a teenage girl who has lost everything and will burn anything. Fourteen-year-old Lucia is a young narrator whose voice will long ring in your ears. She is angry with almost everyone... See More

Silence Once Begun

by Jesse Ball

(152 reviews)

An astonishing novel of unjust conviction, lost love and a journalist's obsession. Over the course of several months, eight people vanish from their homes in the same Japanese town, a single playing card found on each... See More

A Cure for Suicide

by Jesse Ball

(188 reviews)

From the acclaimed author of Silence Once Begun comes a beguiling new novel about a man starting over at the most basic level, and the strange woman who insinuates herself into his life and memory. A man and a woman have... See More

The Way Through Doors (Vintage Contemporaries)

by Jesse Ball

(39 reviews)

With his debut novel, Samedi the Deafness, Jesse Ball emerged as one of our most extraordinary new writers. Now, Ball returns with this haunting tale of love and storytelling, hope and identity. When Selah Morse sees a... See More

The Divers' Game

by Jesse Ball

(139 reviews)

A pair of girls, Lethe and Lois, navigates the perimeters of a segregated city, armed with canisters of killing gas. Another child, Lessen, is at the centre of a bizarre cultural ritual that could be the subject of a Goya... See More

Samedi the Deafness (Vintage Contemporaries)

by Jesse Ball

(60 reviews)

One morning in the park James Sim discovers a man, crumpled on the ground, stabbed in the chest. In the man's last breath, he whispers his confession: Samedi. What follows is a spellbinding game of cat and mouse as James... See More

March Book (Grove Press Poetry)

by Jesse Ball

(4 reviews)

This debut book of poetry from the Plimpton Award-winning author of Census "displays an otherworldly virtuosity... coolly seductive and skillfully wrought" (DeSales Harrison, Boston Review). Called "A young genius" by the... See More

The Village on Horseback: Prose and Verse, 2003–2008

by Jesse Ball

(5 reviews)

Writings from the prize-winning author of The Divers' Game: "Reading Ball feels a little like stumbling into an M.C. Escher print." -- Chicago Tribune This volume by experimental writer Jesse Ball is a philosophical... See More

The Lesson (Kindle Single) (A Vintage Short)

by Jesse Ball

(9 reviews)

A Vintage Short Loring is a widow and chess master who makes her living giving chess lessons; her newest student, who might be a prodigy, bears a striking resemblance to her dead spouse. Has her chess champion husband... See More

The Literary Review: The Long Issue

by TLR The Literary Review

One of America's premiere literary quarterlies takes on the challenge of long form. In this issue of TLR, read three new novellas and two long poems. Give yourself the chance to indulge in a completely different pace. TLR... See More