Seven books in which very little happens

Aaron Robertson is an editor at Literary Hub. He has written for The New York Times, The Nation, Foreign Policy, and elsewhere. His translation of Igiaba Scego's novel Beyond Babylon (Two Lines Press, 2019) was shortlisted for the PEN Translation Prize and Best Translated Book Award.

At Lit Hub he tagged seven "books in which ... very little happens." One title on the list:

The Mezzanine by Nicholson Baker (1988)

Startled by an unlikely occurrence—both shoelaces breaking at the same time—a young office worker is accosted with random thoughts. He struggles to decide whether he is more adult than child as he ascends an escalator to get to work—and, um, higher knowledge of himself.

Read about the other entries on the list.

The Mezzanine is among Alex Clark's eight best books set over twenty-hours.

--Marshal Zeringue