Featherless

Plato famously defined a human being as a "featherless biped." It's hard not to sense the ironic humor in this definition, a reminder that, for all our talk about human dignity, our condition is contingent, vulnerable, and at some level even comic.

Perhaps that's why the writer A.G. Mojtabai-known for her dry, understated, subtly humorous but ultimately honest and courageous depictions of the human condition-chose the name for her latest novel, set in the confines of Shady Rest Home for the Aged.

Mojtabai offers us a varied cast of characters at Shady Rest, including: Eli, who fancies himself a ladies man; Elora, anxious about her wayward nephew; the aloof but lonely scholar Wiktor; and Maddie, a bit eccentric, true, but more wise and compassionate than most. At the center of it all is Daniel, an old soul in a young man's body, with a strange gift for caring for the elderly.

Featherless is one of those rare books that brings us news from the final frontier, the end of life. Its unflinching but humane gaze-informed by the author's own experience-serves as a fitting capstone for a literary career of uncommon distinction.

Praise for A.G Mojtabai

From its engagingly simple opening to its affecting ending, there is not a moment of false emotion. In a masterfully paced narrative, Grace Mojtabai takes us on a journey deep into the lives of ordinary Americans.

-J. M. Coetzee, Nobel Laureate, author of Disgrace (on All That Road Going)

Mojtabai has all the gifts of a great writer-the observant eye that misses no nuance of expression; the ear that hears the music and the poetry behind the plain cadences of common speech; the willingness to confront her own primal fears.

-Richard Dyer, Boston Globe

It is rare to find a gorgeous stylist and a writer of substance yoked in the same artist. Her work shows heart and unsentimental kindness that leaves the reader enlightened and wiser.

-Roger Rosenblatt, author of Cataract Blues

One of the most memorable works of fiction I've read in the last decade.

-John Wilson, former editor, Books & Culture (on Thirst)

A.G. (Grace) Mojtabai has published novels, non-fiction, short stories, and articles. She was raised on the East Coast, spent years in the Middle East, and for the past few decades has made her home on the plains of the Texas Panhandle. She has taught at Harvard University, New York University, and the University of Tulsa. She has been a recipient of a Radcliffe Fellowship, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and two awards from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

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