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The Fortress of Solitude

By Jonathan Lethem

By Jonathan Lethem

By Jonathan Lethem

By Jonathan Lethem

By Jonathan Lethem
Read by David Aaron Baker

By Jonathan Lethem
Read by David Aaron Baker

Best Seller

Part of Vintage Contemporaries

Part of Vintage Contemporaries

Category: Fiction

Category: Fiction

Category: Literary Fiction | Audiobooks

Paperback $18.00

Aug 24, 2004 | ISBN 9780375724886

Ebook $12.99

Sep 07, 2004 | ISBN 9781400095346

Audiobook Download $25.00

Sep 16, 2003 | 1115 Minutes

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    The Fortress of Solitude by Jonathan Lethem
    Paperback $18.00
    Aug 24, 2004 | ISBN 9780375724886

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    • Paperback $18.00

      Aug 24, 2004 | ISBN 9780375724886

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      Sep 07, 2004 | ISBN 9781400095346

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    About The Fortress of Solitude

    A New York Times Book Review EDITORS’ CHOICE. 

    From the National Book Critics Circle Award-winning author of Motherless Brooklyn, comes the vividly told story of Dylan Ebdus growing up white and motherless in downtown Brooklyn in the 1970s. In a neighborhood where the entertainments include muggings along with games of stoopball, Dylan has one friend, a black teenager, also motherless, named Mingus Rude. Through the knitting and unraveling of the boys’ friendship, Lethem creates an overwhelmingly rich and emotionally gripping canvas of race and class, superheros, gentrification, funk, hip-hop, graffiti tagging, loyalty, and memory. 

    “A tour de force…. Belongs to a venerable New York literary tradition that stretches back through Go Tell It on the Mountain, A Walker in the City, and Call it Sleep.” —The New York Times Magazine

    “One of the richest, messiest, most ambitious, most interesting novels of the year…. Lethem grabs and captures 1970s New York City, and he brings it to a story worth telling.” —Time

    About The Fortress of Solitude

    A New York Times Book Review EDITORS’ CHOICE. 

    From the National Book Critics Circle Award-winning author of Motherless Brooklyn, comes the vividly told story of Dylan Ebdus growing up white and motherless in downtown Brooklyn in the 1970s. In a neighborhood where the entertainments include muggings along with games of stoopball, Dylan has one friend, a black teenager, also motherless, named Mingus Rude. Through the knitting and unraveling of the boys’ friendship, Lethem creates an overwhelmingly rich and emotionally gripping canvas of race and class, superheros, gentrification, funk, hip-hop, graffiti tagging, loyalty, and memory. 

    “A tour de force…. Belongs to a venerable New York literary tradition that stretches back through Go Tell It on the Mountain, A Walker in the City, and Call it Sleep.” —The New York Times Magazine

    “One of the richest, messiest, most ambitious, most interesting novels of the year…. Lethem grabs and captures 1970s New York City, and he brings it to a story worth telling.” —Time

    About The Fortress of Solitude

    This is the story of two boys, Dylan Ebdus and Mingus Rude. They are friends and neighbors, but because Dylan is white and Mingus is black, their friendship is not simple. This is the story of their Brooklyn neighborhood, which is almost exclusively black despite the first whispers of something that will become known as "gentrification."

    This is the story of 1970s America, a time when the most simple human decisions—what music you listen to, whether to speak to the kid in the seat next to you, whether to give up your lunch money—are laden with potential political, social and racial disaster. This is the story of 1990s America, when no one cared anymore.

    This is the story of punk, that easy white rebellion, and crack, that monstrous plague. This is the story of the loneliness of the avant-garde artist and the exuberance of the graffiti artist.

    This is the story of what would happen if two teenaged boys obsessed with comic book heroes actually had superpowers: They would screw up their lives.

    This is the story of joyous afternoons of stickball and dreaded years of schoolyard extortion. This is the story of belonging to a society that doesn’t accept you. This is the story of prison and of college, of Brooklyn and Berkeley, of soul and rap, of murder and redemption.

    This is the story Jonathan Lethem was born to tell. This is THE FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE.

    Read An Excerpt

    Reading Guide

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    Reading Guide

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    Reading Guide

    Also by Jonathan Lethem

    A Gambler's Anatomy
    Lucky Alan
    Dissident Gardens
    The Ecstasy of Influence
    Chronic City
    See all books by Jonathan Lethem

    Also by Jonathan Lethem

    A Gambler's Anatomy
    Lucky Alan
    Dissident Gardens
    The Ecstasy of Influence
    Chronic City
    See all books by Jonathan Lethem

    Also by Jonathan Lethem

    A Gambler's Anatomy
    Lucky Alan
    Dissident Gardens
    The Ecstasy of Influence
    Chronic City
    See all books by Jonathan Lethem

    About Jonathan Lethem

    Jonathan Lethem is the New York Times bestselling author of nine novels, including Dissident Gardens, Chronic City, The Fortress of Solitude, and Motherless Brooklyn, and of the essay collection The Ecstasy of Influence, which was a National Book Critics Circle Award finalist. A recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship… More about Jonathan Lethem

    About Jonathan Lethem

    Jonathan Lethem is the New York Times bestselling author of nine novels, including Dissident Gardens, Chronic City, The Fortress of Solitude, and Motherless Brooklyn, and of the essay collection The Ecstasy of Influence, which was a National Book Critics Circle Award finalist. A recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship… More about Jonathan Lethem

    About Jonathan Lethem

    Jonathan Lethem is the New York Times bestselling author of nine novels, including Dissident Gardens, Chronic City, The Fortress of Solitude, and Motherless Brooklyn, and of the essay collection The Ecstasy of Influence, which was a National Book Critics Circle Award finalist. A recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship… More about Jonathan Lethem

    Product Details

    Category: Fiction

    Paperback | $18.00
    Published by Vintage
    Aug 24, 2004 | 528 Pages | 5-3/16 x 8 | ISBN 9780375724886

    Category: Fiction

    Ebook | $12.99
    Published by Vintage
    Sep 07, 2004 | 528 Pages | ISBN 9781400095346

    Category: Literary Fiction | Audiobooks

    Audiobook Download | $25.00
    Published by Random House Audio
    Sep 16, 2003 | 1115 Minutes | ISBN 9780739306475
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    Praise

    “Magnificent. . . . [A] massively ambitious, profoundly accomplished novel.” – San Francisco Chronicle

    “Glorious, chaotic, raw. . . . One of the richest, messiest, most ambitious, most interesting novels of the year. . . . Lethem grabs and captures 1970s New York City, and he brings to it a story worth telling.” —Time

    “A tour de force . . . Belongs to a venerable New York literary tradition that stretches back through Go Tell it On the Mountain, A Walker in the City, and Call it Sleep.” —The New York Times

    “The finest novel of the year, by far, and likely of the past five. . . . Better than a movie, better than a symphony, better than a play, and better than a painting, because it is all of them.” –Austin Chronicle

    Awards

    IMPAC Dublin Literary Award NOMINEE 2005

    International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award NOMINEE 2005

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