Transcription by Ben Lerner

$13

Recommended by Lily

I listened to Ben Lerner’s new novel in one go today in my studio and can’t recommend it enough. A journalist takes the train from New York to Providence to interview his aging and very famous former-professor and accidentally drops his iPhone in a hotel sink beforehand, then pretends to record the interview on the broken phone to save face. Fatherhood, iPhone addiction, WWII history, the vagaries of memory and haunting of family history, forgiveness, and those ASMR unboxing videos on YouTube. Lerner wrote my favorite new book of the year.

Books, Clips, & Recordings

5 months ago

Comments

Traci Fleming

@traciflemingApr 26, 2026

I loved this too!

Noah Morse

@noahApr 27, 2026

saved and excited to read / listen

Grant

@grantApr 27, 2026

Enjoyed this as well. Giles Harvey’s recent New Yorker review of it is a great companion read, I thought.

Across Rec League

Transcription

Kelsey Keith

“I will say that reading Ben Lerner’s latest novel while on an off-grid preschool family camping trip is A MOVE. Ripe scenario for examining the absence of screens, one’s phone addiction, nostalgia for a deviceless past, etc.”