Review
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“[Ball’s] most personal and best to date... [A] point —
about the beautiful varieties of perception, of experience — made
without sentimentality, burns at the core of the book, and of
much of Ball’s work, which rails against the tedium of consensus,
the cruelty of conformity.” (New York Times)
“Census is a vital testament to selfless love; a psalm to
commonplace miracles; and a mysterious evolving metaphor. So
kind, it aches.” (David Mitchell, author of Cloud Atlas)
“If there’s a refrain running through [Ball’s] large body of
work, it’s that compassion, kindness and empathy trump rules and
authority of any kind...this damning but achingly tender novel
holds open a space for human redemption, never mind that we have
built our systems against it.” (Los Angeles Times)
“With echoes of Paul Auster and Cormac McCarthy, Jesse Ball’s
road novel is anything but traditional. The prolific,
award-winning author tells the story of a her and his son who
has Down syndrome, bringing out their connection in luminous and
unexpected ways.” (Entertainment Weekly)
“Strange and wonderful ... A melancholy and grief-filled book,
Census also serves a y helping of compassion. I highly
recommend it for fans of Paul Auster and Samantha Hunt.” (LitHub)
“Ball is too smart… to rely on cheap tricks of
sentimentality...the result is an understated feat.” (Washington
Post)
“Ball writes dystopia and fabulism with a hushed, poetic grace;
as with his other work, Census promises to be beautifully and
precisely wrought.” (AV Club)
“Emotionally riveting and through with the most pressing
issues of our time, Ball’s exploration of humanity in modern
America is not to be missed.” (Popsugar)
“[Ball is] a writer of an elegantly poetic bent… Explore with
Ball, fall into his quirky rhythms, and you’ll discover a burning
plea for empathy. It will break your heart.” (Entertainment
Weekly)
“Ball’s poignant dedication to his late older brother Adam, who
had Down syndrome, adds yet another layer of complexity to this
surreal and powerful story....grounded by the most enduring theme
of familial love.”
(Esquire)
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From the Back Cover
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When a widower receives the devastating news that he doesn’t have
long to live, he is struck by the question of who will care for
his adult son—a son whom he fiercely loves, a boy with Down
syndrome. With no recourse in mind, and with a desire to see the
country on one last trip, the man signs up as a census taker for
a mysterious governmental bureau and leaves town with his son.
Traveling north, farther into the country, through a tapestry of
towns named only by ascending letters of the alphabet, the man
and his son encounter a wide range of human experience. While
some townspeople welcome the pair into their homes, others, who
bear the physical brand of past censuses on their ribs, are wary
of their presence. Toward the edges of civilization, the
landscape grows wilder and the towns grow farther apart and more
blighted by industrial decay. As they approach Z, the man must
confront a series of questions: What is the purpose of the
census? Is he complicit in its mission? And just how will he
learn to say goodbye to his son?
Wrenching and beautiful, Census is a novel about free will,
grief, the power of memory, and the ferocity of parental love. It
is also an indictment of the cruelties of our society by a major
writer.
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About the Author
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Jesse Ball was born in New York. He is the author of fifteen
books, most recently the novel Census. His works have been
published to accl in many parts of the world and translated
into more than a dozen languages. He is on the faculty at the
School of the Art Institute of Chicago, is a winner of the Paris
Review’s Plimpton Prize and the Gordon Burn Prize, and was
long-listed for the National Book Award. He was named one of
Granta’s Best Young American Novelists, and has been a fellow of
the NEA, Creative Capital, and the Guggenheim Foundation.
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