Recommendations you can check.
Novelist and critic, author of The Body Scout and Metallic Realms; writes Counter Craft on fiction writing and the publishing industry.
21 things
Moby-DickBook Herman Melville
Moby-Dick remains perhaps the best reading experience of my life.
'Short Little Difficult Books' — his list of formally or stylistically demanding novels you can read in a day; book links are bookshop.org/a/88357 affiliate links.
2025-11-18·countercraft.substack.com ↗
Invisible CitiesBook Italo Calvino
I'm going to have to include Italo Calvino's Oulipian novel Invisible Cities (trans. by William Weaver), since it is a foundational text for me.
'Short Little Difficult Books' — his list of formally or stylistically demanding novels you can read in a day; book links are bookshop.org/a/88357 affiliate links.
2025-11-18·countercraft.substack.com ↗
Multiple ChoiceBook Alejandro Zambra
Two other formally odd books I love: Alejandro Zambra's Multiple Choice (trans. by Megan McDowell), structured as a standardized test with e.g. chapters of fill-in-the-blank questions
'Short Little Difficult Books' — his list of formally or stylistically demanding novels you can read in a day; book links are bookshop.org/a/88357 affiliate links.
2025-11-18·countercraft.substack.com ↗
The EmployeesBook Olga Ravn
Olga Ravn's The Employees (trans. by Martin Aitken) that takes the form of employee interview transcripts on a spaceship that has encountered bizarre alien life.
'Short Little Difficult Books' — his list of formally or stylistically demanding novels you can read in a day; book links are bookshop.org/a/88357 affiliate links.
2025-11-18·countercraft.substack.com ↗
SulaBook Toni Morrison
Toni Morrison's brief Sula—rereleased with a new cover this month—is one of her best works and a great starting place for her lush and lyrical style.
'Short Little Difficult Books' — his list of formally or stylistically demanding novels you can read in a day; book links are bookshop.org/a/88357 affiliate links.
2025-11-18·countercraft.substack.com ↗
Pedro PáramoBook Juan Rulfo
Some excellent short novels that fit this include Juan Rulfo's haunted and brilliant Pedro Páramo
'Short Little Difficult Books' — his list of formally or stylistically demanding novels you can read in a day; book links are bookshop.org/a/88357 affiliate links.
2025-11-18·countercraft.substack.com ↗
On the Calculation of Volume (Book I)Book Solvej Balle
I won't spoil anything by saying more but the novel is really lovely and captivating, pulling surprising meaning and depth from repetition.
'Four Translated Novels I Enjoyed This Year' — translated fiction he recommends; book links are bookshop.org/a/88357 affiliate links.
2024-12-01·countercraft.substack.com ↗
FulgentiusBook César Aira
Point being that it was probably inevitable I would love this short and absurd novel about a sexagenarian Roman general who is obsessed with staging the sole play he ever wrote—back as a precocious young artist—over and over again.
'Four Translated Novels I Enjoyed This Year' — translated fiction he recommends; book links are bookshop.org/a/88357 affiliate links.
2024-12-01·countercraft.substack.com ↗
Season of the SwampBook Yuri Herrera
Yuri Herrera is one of the few contemporary authors whose books I will always buy and know I will love.
'Four Translated Novels I Enjoyed This Year' — translated fiction he recommends; book links are bookshop.org/a/88357 affiliate links.
2024-12-01·countercraft.substack.com ↗
JamesBook Percival Everett
Briefly, James is Huckleberry Finn retold from the perspective of Jim. It has all the energy and humor of Twain's work—in Everett's own unique voice of course—and adds a whole new level of depth to the story.
'Four Books I Loved Coming Out This Spring' — his own spring 2024 recommendations; every book link is a bookshop.org/a/88357 affiliate link, and he discloses knowing two of the authors personally.
2024-02-22·countercraft.substack.com ↗
HeadshotBook Rita Bullwinkel
Rita Bullwinkel follows up her excellent and weird story collection Belly Up with a knockout punch of a debut
'Four Books I Loved Coming Out This Spring' — his own spring 2024 recommendations; every book link is a bookshop.org/a/88357 affiliate link, and he discloses knowing two of the authors personally.
2024-02-22·countercraft.substack.com ↗
The Novices of LernaBook Ángel Bonomini
And if you are, like me, a fan of surreal and fantastical literature I think you will be blown away by The Novices of Lerna.
'Four Books I Loved Coming Out This Spring' — his own spring 2024 recommendations; every book link is a bookshop.org/a/88357 affiliate link, and he discloses knowing two of the authors personally.
2024-02-22·countercraft.substack.com ↗
RebootBook Justin Taylor
For now, let me say I tore through Reboot, which is a sharply written and hilarious novel about a has-been actor in a downward spiral who tries to fix his life with a (yes) reboot of the Buffy-by-way-of-Baywatch teen drama that made him briefly a star.
'Four Books I Loved Coming Out This Spring' — his own spring 2024 recommendations; every book link is a bookshop.org/a/88357 affiliate link, and he discloses knowing two of the authors personally.
2024-02-22·countercraft.substack.com ↗
The Werewolf at DuskBook David Small
Obviously, my text appears in the book but I would have loved it even if that wasn't the case. Small is just an astounding artist—see his bestselling memoir Stitches
'Four Books I Loved Coming Out This Spring' — his own spring 2024 recommendations; every book link is a bookshop.org/a/88357 affiliate link, and he discloses knowing two of the authors personally.
2024-02-22·countercraft.substack.com ↗
The Art of Asking Your Boss for a RaiseBook Georges Perec
The Art of Asking is a delightful and quick read. Only 80 pages in fact.
'Short Little Difficult Books' — his list of formally or stylistically demanding novels you can read in a day; book links are bookshop.org/a/88357 affiliate links.
2025-11-18·countercraft.substack.com ↗
The Box ManBook Kobo Abe
A reader reminded me that one of my favorite authors, Kobo Abe, has a very fun and formally bizarre novel called The Box Man
'Short Little Difficult Books' — his list of formally or stylistically demanding novels you can read in a day; book links are bookshop.org/a/88357 affiliate links.
2025-11-18·countercraft.substack.com ↗
Euphoria DaysBook Pilar Fraile
Like the previous two books, this one is short (just under 200 pages) and written in lively prose and fast-moving chapters.
'Four Translated Novels I Enjoyed This Year' — translated fiction he recommends; book links are bookshop.org/a/88357 affiliate links.
2024-12-01·countercraft.substack.com ↗
Exercises in StyleBook Raymond Queneau
Oulipo's co-founder Raymond Queneau has a book to include here called Exercises in Style (trans. by Barbara Wright), which retells an intentionally banal story 99 times.
'Short Little Difficult Books' — his list of formally or stylistically demanding novels you can read in a day; book links are bookshop.org/a/88357 affiliate links.
2025-11-18·countercraft.substack.com ↗
The LoserBook Thomas Bernhard
You can't go wrong with the short The Loser (trans. by Mark M. Anderson) as an introduction to Thomas Bernhard.
'Short Little Difficult Books' — his list of formally or stylistically demanding novels you can read in a day; book links are bookshop.org/a/88357 affiliate links.
2025-11-18·countercraft.substack.com ↗
Child of GodBook Cormac McCarthy
Cormac McCarthy's Child of God is the perfect starter book to see if you enjoy McCarthy's maximalist prose and macabre images before tackling the longer Blood Meridian.
'Short Little Difficult Books' — his list of formally or stylistically demanding novels you can read in a day; book links are bookshop.org/a/88357 affiliate links.
2025-11-18·countercraft.substack.com ↗
Metallic RealmsBook Lincoln Michel
A reminder that my novel Metallic Realms is available at a bookstore near you. Reviews call it "brilliant" (Esquire), "a total blast" (Chicago Tribune), "unrelentingly smart and inventive" (Locus), and "just plain wonderful" (Booklist). Maybe the perfect holiday gift for the booklover in your life?
'Short Little Difficult Books' — his list of formally or stylistically demanding novels you can read in a day; book links are bookshop.org/a/88357 affiliate links.
2025-11-18·countercraft.substack.com ↗
Every entry is a verbatim quote and a link to the public post it came from. Nothing is paraphrased. If it is not on record somewhere public, it is not here.
The verdict is what they actually said: loved and liked are explicit; recommended means they told others to get it; uses means they only say they use it; read is a book on their public shelf with no verdict; mixed and disliked are kept too.
A dashed affiliate link, sponsored or their own label means the post disclosed a relationship. It is shown, never hidden.
The shading behind a date shows how dated a recommendation is for its kind of thing.
The shading behind a date shows how dated a recommendation is, for its kind of thing. Fully green is recent. It drains a quarter at a time as the post gets older, and is empty once it reads as dated.
What counts as old depends on the thing. A laptop praised four years ago has been replaced twice; a book loved twenty years ago is probably still loved. The shading is gone after about:
Stripes mean the post carries no date and the date shown is an estimate. No date at all, no shading.