AVA

Synopsis

Ava Klein—thirty-nine, lover of life, world traveler, and professor of comparative literature—is dying. From her hospital bed on the last day of her life, she makes one final ecstatic voyage through memory, love, desire, literature, family, and war. Her life unfolds in fragments and vignettes, populated by the people she has loved, including her three former husbands and the writers who have shaped her imagination.

As Ava moves through memories of pleasure, regret, gratitude, and loss, the history of her family and the violence of the wider world continually enter her consciousness. Her parents survived the Treblinka death camp, while her Aunt Sophie did not, and on Ava's final day Iraq invades Kuwait. Poetic, fragmented, and intensely lyrical, AVA is an experimental meditation on mortality and the extraordinary desire to live. This edition features a new introduction by Jamie Hood. 

About the Author

Carole Maso is an American novelist and author of essays, prose poetry, and memoir. She is the author of ten books, including Ghost Dance, The Art Lover, AVA, The American Woman in the Chinese Hat, Defiance, and Mother & Child. Her work has received numerous awards and fellowships, including the 2018 Berlin Prize. Jamie Hood is the author of Trauma Plot: A Life and how to be a good girl. 

Publisher
Dalkey Archive Press

Publication Date
July 21, 2026

Format
Paperback

Pages
300

Subjects
Literary Fiction · Experimental Fiction · Feminist Fiction · Prose Poetry · Translated/International Fiction

ISBN
9781628976557