NEW YORK (AP) 鈥� The next novel from Pulitzer Prize winner Michael Cunningham, his first in a decade, is a family saga set in New York City before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Random House announced Monday that 鈥淒ay鈥� will be published in January. The novel takes place on three separate days in April, one each in the years 2019-2021.
鈥淚鈥檝e definitely had moments over the last 10 years when I thought, well, if the world is in this kind of shape, who needs a novel?鈥� Cunningham said in a statement. 鈥淏ut maybe it鈥檚 during hard times that the world needs novels more than ever."
The author calls the new book 鈥渁 story about people dealing with something terrible, and it鈥檚 about survival, but more centrally it鈥檚 a story about love. I鈥檓 deeply interested in love 鈥� a sense of happiness, of living the life that one has hoped to live. And love is most interesting when it has survived terrible tests.鈥�
Cunningham's previous novels, published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux, include 鈥淪pecimen Days,鈥� 鈥淏y Nightfall鈥� and 鈥淭he Hours,鈥� which won the Pulitzer for fiction in 1999 and was adapted into an Oscar winning movie of the same name.
The Associated Press
