Lincoln Michel
Novelist and critic, author of The Body Scout and Metallic Realms; writes Counter Craft on fiction writing and the publishing industry.
Child of God by Cormac McCarthy
Cormac McCarthy's Child of God is the perfect starter book to see if you enjoy McCarthy's maximalist prose and macabre images before tackling the longer Blood Meridian.
on countercraft.substack.com · 18 Nov 2025
Exercises in Style by Raymond Queneau
Oulipo's co-founder Raymond Queneau has a book to include here called Exercises in Style (trans. by Barbara Wright), which retells an intentionally banal story 99 times.
on countercraft.substack.com · 18 Nov 2025
Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino
I'm going to have to include Italo Calvino's Oulipian novel Invisible Cities (trans. by William Weaver), since it is a foundational text for me.
on countercraft.substack.com · 18 Nov 2025
Metallic Realms by Lincoln Michel
A reminder that my novel Metallic Realms is available at a bookstore near you. Reviews call it "brilliant" (Esquire), "a total blast" (Chicago Tribune), "unrelentingly smart and inventive" (Locus), and "just plain wonderful" (Booklist). Maybe the perfect holiday gift for the booklover in your life?
on countercraft.substack.com · 18 Nov 2025
Moby-Dick by Herman Melville
Moby-Dick remains perhaps the best reading experience of my life.
on countercraft.substack.com · 18 Nov 2025
Multiple Choice by Alejandro Zambra
Two other formally odd books I love: Alejandro Zambra's Multiple Choice (trans. by Megan McDowell), structured as a standardized test with e.g. chapters of fill-in-the-blank questions
on countercraft.substack.com · 18 Nov 2025
Pedro Páramo by Juan Rulfo
Some excellent short novels that fit this include Juan Rulfo's haunted and brilliant Pedro Páramo
on countercraft.substack.com · 18 Nov 2025
Sula by Toni Morrison
Toni Morrison's brief Sula—rereleased with a new cover this month—is one of her best works and a great starting place for her lush and lyrical style.
on countercraft.substack.com · 18 Nov 2025
The Art of Asking Your Boss for a Raise by Georges Perec
The Art of Asking is a delightful and quick read. Only 80 pages in fact.
on countercraft.substack.com · 18 Nov 2025
The Box Man by Kobo Abe
A reader reminded me that one of my favorite authors, Kobo Abe, has a very fun and formally bizarre novel called The Box Man
on countercraft.substack.com · 18 Nov 2025
The Employees by Olga Ravn
Olga Ravn's The Employees (trans. by Martin Aitken) that takes the form of employee interview transcripts on a spaceship that has encountered bizarre alien life.
on countercraft.substack.com · 18 Nov 2025
The Loser by Thomas Bernhard
You can't go wrong with the short The Loser (trans. by Mark M. Anderson) as an introduction to Thomas Bernhard.
on countercraft.substack.com · 18 Nov 2025
Euphoria Days by Pilar Fraile
Like the previous two books, this one is short (just under 200 pages) and written in lively prose and fast-moving chapters.
on countercraft.substack.com · 1 Dec 2024
Fulgentius by César Aira
Point being that it was probably inevitable I would love this short and absurd novel about a sexagenarian Roman general who is obsessed with staging the sole play he ever wrote—back as a precocious young artist—over and over again.
on countercraft.substack.com · 1 Dec 2024
On the Calculation of Volume (Book I) by Solvej Balle
I won't spoil anything by saying more but the novel is really lovely and captivating, pulling surprising meaning and depth from repetition.
on countercraft.substack.com · 1 Dec 2024
Season of the Swamp by Yuri Herrera
Yuri Herrera is one of the few contemporary authors whose books I will always buy and know I will love.
on countercraft.substack.com · 1 Dec 2024
Headshot by Rita Bullwinkel
Rita Bullwinkel follows up her excellent and weird story collection Belly Up with a knockout punch of a debut
on countercraft.substack.com · 22 Feb 2024
James by Percival Everett
Briefly, James is Huckleberry Finn retold from the perspective of Jim. It has all the energy and humor of Twain's work—in Everett's own unique voice of course—and adds a whole new level of depth to the story.
on countercraft.substack.com · 22 Feb 2024
Reboot by Justin Taylor
For now, let me say I tore through Reboot, which is a sharply written and hilarious novel about a has-been actor in a downward spiral who tries to fix his life with a (yes) reboot of the Buffy-by-way-of-Baywatch teen drama that made him briefly a star.
on countercraft.substack.com · 22 Feb 2024
The Novices of Lerna by Ángel Bonomini
And if you are, like me, a fan of surreal and fantastical literature I think you will be blown away by The Novices of Lerna.
on countercraft.substack.com · 22 Feb 2024
The Werewolf at Dusk by David Small
Obviously, my text appears in the book but I would have loved it even if that wasn't the case. Small is just an astounding artist—see his bestselling memoir Stitches
on countercraft.substack.com · 22 Feb 2024
Everything Lincoln Michel recommends — not just books — on rcmnd →