?A literary genius for our time? Guardian?Arguably America?s greatest living novelist? Daily Telegraph?Franzen is that rare bird: a literary novelist of the highest distinction who has also become one of the bestsellers of the age? Evening Standard?Franzen?s words crackle with wit humour and wisdom? ShortlistA sharp and provocative new essay collection from the award-winning author of Freedom and The CorrectionsIn The End of the End of the Earth, which gathers essays and speeches written mostly in the past five years, Jonathan Franzen returns with renewed vigor to the themes ? both human and literary ? that have long preoccupied him. Whether exploring his complex relationship with his uncle, recounting his young adulthood in New York, or offering an illuminating look at the global seabird crisis, these pieces contain all the wit and disabused realism that we?ve come to expect from Franzen.Taken together, these essays trace the progress of a unique and mature mind wrestling with itself, with literature, and with some of the most important issues of our day, made more pressing by the current political milieu. The End of the End of the Earth is remarkable, provocative and necessary.