A roadmap for the NYRB Classics series

Celebrating Twenty Years of NYRB Classics [THE RED THREAD]( TWENTY YEARS OF NYRB CLASSICS EDITED AND WITH A FOREWORD BY EDWIN FRANK For twenty years, the NYRB Classics series has been on a journey that, to some, may have appeared a fool's errand or, as editorial director Edwin Frank writes in his foreword to The Red Thread, "haplessly wishful." But wishful for what? For a list of books that had been forgotten or largely ignored by the mainstream. A list, as Frank writes, of "good books, books to delight and enlighten and surprise." Books in translation. Books that are strange and wonderful. Books that defy classification and attest to the circumstances—personal, historical, political—out of which they arise while also transcending those very realities to suggest something beyond. In The Red Thread, Edwin Frank has gathered together a selection of excerpts from across the five-hundred-plus titles in the NYRB Classics series. This is not, Frank is careful to note, "a greatest hits" anthology. Nothing of the kind. Better to think of it as a roadmap of sorts through the heart of the series. Along the way, you'll encounter writings by Andrey Platanov, Honoré de Balzac, Mavis Gallant, Qiu Miaojin, Euripides, Elizabeth Hardwick, Vasily Grossman, Tove Jansson, and many others. Each piece stands on its own. Each piece reflects something of what makes the NYRB Classics series what it is. Each piece is, in some way, bound by a common thread, that of truly good literature. [READ MORE]( CELEBRATE WITH US! Please join us as we celebrate twenty years of NYRB Classics on Thursday, September 19, 7:30pm (doors 6:30) [Murmrr Ballroom]( in Brooklyn Edwin Frank will introduce short readings by Paul Auster, Amit Chaudhuri, Deborah Eisenberg, Francine Prose, and Meg Wolitzer. A DJ set by Tim Mohr and dancing to follow. Co-sponsored by Murmrr and Community Bookstore. RSVP [here](. You are receiving this message because you signed up for email newsletters from NYRB. You can [choose the types of mailings you wish to receive](: [Update preferences]( New York Review Books 435 Hudson Street, New York, NY 10014 Not a subscriber? Sign up for our newsletter [here](. [Unsubscribe](