In the past year, the narrator of 10:04 has enjoyed unexpected literary success,
been diagnosed with a potentially fatal heart condition, and been asked by his
best friend to help her conceive a child. Now, in a New York of increasingly fre
quent superstorms and political unrest, he must reckon with his biological morta
lity, the possibility of a literary afterlife, and the prospect of (unconvention
al) fatherhood in a city that might soon be under water. In prose that Jonathan
Franzen has called 'hilarious...cracklingly intelligent...and original in every
sentence', Lerner's new novel charts an exhilarating course through the contempo
rary landscape of sex, friendship, memory, art and politics, and captures what i
t is like to be alive right now.
