The Topeka School: A Novel

Written by Ben Lerner

Narrated by Nancy Linari, Peter Berkrot and Tristan Wright

Named one of the most anticipated fall books by:
Entertainment Weekly, Esquire, Vogue, Vulture, The Observer, Kirkus, Lit Hub, The Millions, The Week, Oprah Magazine, The Paris Review Daily, Nylon, Pacific Standard, Publishers Weekly, Slate, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and The Guardian

From the award-winning author of 10:04 and Leaving the Atocha Station, a tender and expansive family drama set in the American Midwest at the turn of the century: a tale of adolescence, transgression, and the conditions that have given rise to the trolls and tyrants of the New Right.

Adam Gordon is a senior at Topeka High School, class of ’97. His mother, Jane, is a famous feminist author; his father, Jonathan, is an expert at getting “lost boys” to open up. They both work at a psychiatric clinic that has attracted staff and patients from around the world. Adam is a renowned debater, expected to win a national championship before he heads to college. He is one of the cool kids, ready to fight or, better, freestyle about fighting if it keeps his peers from thinking of him as weak. Adam is also one of the seniors who bring the loner Darren Eberheart—who is, unbeknownst to Adam, his father’s patient—into the social scene, to disastrous effect.

Deftly shifting perspectives and time periods, The Topeka School is the story of a family, its struggles and its strengths: Jane’s reckoning with the legacy of an abusive father, Jonathan’s marital transgressions, the challenge of raising a good son in a culture of toxic masculinity. It is also a riveting prehistory of the present: the collapse of public speech, the trolls and tyrants of the New Right, and the ongoing crisis of identity among white men.

Cover photograph from The Wichita Eagle. © 1990 McClatchy. All rights reserved. Used under license. Kansas.com

• Language: English
• Publisher: Macmillan Audio
• Release date: Oct 1, 2019
• ISBN: 9781250243225

Ben Lerner

Ben Lerner (Kansas, 1979) es poeta, novelista y ensayista. Fue becado por las fundaciones Fullbright, Guggenheim y MacArthur. Asimismo, fue galardonado con el Premio Nacional del Libro de Estados Unidos. En España ha publicado el ensayo El odio a la poesía (Alpha Decay, 2017), el poemario Elegías Doppler y las novelas Saliendo de la estación de Atocha (Literatura Random House, 2013, 2021) y 10:04(Reservoir Books, 2015). Literatura Random House publicará próximamente su nueva novela, El instituto Topeka, finalista del Premio Pulitzer.

Reviews for The Topeka School

[holly crowley · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This was not what I had expected and I was pleasantly surprised by how thought provoking it is. Compelling story with shifting timelines following the life of a high school student from Kansas and his parents as well as his extended family. The final section, with more current day Adam was a great ending.

[Lucia Garcia · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

So... yes, this book is beautifully written. Has great sentences and it achieves the fluid-Consciousness effect like I have never read before. Yet... what is the point of the book? I believe that, like in the much explained (do not worry, Lerner will tell you all about it) debating technique: "The Spread", the author throws at the reader an incessant and unnecessary amount of arguments and topics, which results in a very weak plot.
I would NOT recommend this book.