Specimen Days

Michael Cunningham, author of the bestsellers “House on the Edge of the World,” “Flesh and Blood,” and “The Hours,” is one of the most famous prose writers in contemporary America. He received the Pulitzer Prize for “The Hours,” the best American novel of 1998, and the film of the same name—directed by British filmmaker Stephen Daldry—won an Oscar and screened around the world. His novel “Selected Days” is a narrative of astonishing power. A mystical story, a gripping thriller, and a touching novella are interwoven in one book of incredible strength. An original and bold writer, Cunningham combines three parts of different genres in his novel: a mystical story from the era of the Industrial Revolution, a thriller about modern child terrorism, and a novella about a post-apocalyptic future—linked by place of action (New York), an unchanging group of characters (a man, a woman, a boy), and by a prophetic figure from American poet Walt Whitman.