`These essays feel like a life's wisdom - its hurts, joys and redemptions - salvaged from a great fire ... This book makes me feel possible' Ocean Vuong `Wonderful' Rebecca Solnit `Alexander Chee is brilliant and brave in equal measure ... An essential book' Garth Greenwell As a novelist, Alexander Chee has been described as `masterful' by Roxane Gay, `incendiary' by the New York Times, and `brilliant' by the Washington Post. With How to Write an Autobiographical Novel, his first collection of nonfiction, he secures his place as one of the finest essayists of his generation. ...

`Every word makes me ache ... Written with exquisite empathy and grace' Roxane Gay `Singularly beautiful and psychologically harrowing ... One of the best American novels of this century' Boston Globe Twelve-year-old Fee is a shy Korean American boy and a newly named section leader of the first sopranos in his local boys' choir. At their summer camp, situated in an idyllic and secluded lakeside retreat, Fee grapples with his complicated feelings towards his best friend, Peter. But as Fee comes to learn how the director treats his section leaders, he is so ashamed he says nothing of...