NAMED A RECOMMENDED BOOK OF 2018 BY
The New York Times - Buzzfeed - Esquire - Nylon - The Boston Globe - The Huffington Post - The Chicago Tribune - The Rumpus - The AV Club - Southern Living - The Millions - The Chicago Reader - Kirkus - Publishers Weekly - NPR
A powerful and moving new novel from an award-winning, acclaimed author: in the wake of a devastating revelation, a father and son journey north across a tapestry of towns
When a widower receives notice from a doctor that he doesn't have long left to live, he is struck by the question of who will care for his adult son--a son whom he fiercely loves, a boy with Down syndrome. With no recourse in mind, and with a desire to see the country on one last trip, the man signs up as a census taker for a mysterious governmental bureau and leaves town with his son.
Traveling into the country, through towns named only by ascending letters of the alphabet, the man and his son encounter a wide range of human experience. While some townspeople welcome them into their homes, others who bear the physical brand of past censuses on their ribs are wary of their presence. When they press toward the edges of civilization, the landscape grows wilder, and the towns grow farther apart and more blighted by industrial decay. As they approach "Z," the man must confront a series of questions: What is the purpose of the census? Is he complicit in its mission? And just how will he learn to say good-bye to his son?
Mysterious and evocative, Census is a novel about free will, grief, the power of memory, and the ferocity of parental love, from one of our most captivating young writers.
"Ball's latest is an intensely moving and dazzlingly imagined journey...This novel is a devastatingly powerful call for understanding and compassion."--Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"An ethereal meditation on love, the duty of a caretaker, and mortality."--Kirkus Reviews
"Ball writes dystopia and fabulism with a hushed, poetic grace; as with his other work, Census promises to be beautifully and precisely wrought."--AV Club
"In sync with Italo Calvino, Paul Auster, and Howard Norman, Ball takes a matter-of-fact approach to surreal situations, which he deepens with finely rendered and realistic thoughts and emotions. His latest mysterious, mesmerizing, and insightful fairy tale... [is] mind-bending, gorgeously well told, and profoundly moving."--Booklist (starred review)
"With echoes of Paul Auster and Cormac McCarthy, Jesse Ball's road novel is anything but traditional. The prolific, award-winning author tells the story of a father and his son who has Down syndrome, bringing out their connection in luminous and unexpected ways."--Entertainment Weekly
"Strange and wonderful ... A melancholy and grief-filled book, Census also serves a healthy helping of compassion. I highly recommend it for fans of Paul Auster and Samantha Hunt."--LitHub
"Ball is too smart... to rely on cheap tricks of sentimentality...the result is an understated feat."--Washington Post
"Heart-breaking."--BBC.com
"Emotionally riveting and shot through with the most pressing issues of our time, Ball's exploration of humanity in modern America is not to be missed."--Popsugar
"Each new book from Jesse Ball reveals a new facet of his abilities as a writer; each one takes bold structural risks even as it ventures into heart-rending territories."--Vol 1Brooklyn
