Jennifer Acker and DeWitt Henry

Harvard Book Store welcomes acclaimed writers JENNIFER ACKER, the founding editor of The Common magazine, and DeWITT HENRY, the founding editor of Ploughshares, for a discussion of their new books, The Limits of the World: A Novel and Sweet Marjoram: Notes and Essays.

About The Limits of the World

The Chandaria family—emigrants from the Indian-enclave of Nairobi—have managed to flourish in America. Premchand, the father, is a doctor who has worked doggedly to grow his practice and give his family security; his wife, Urmila, runs a business importing artisanal Kenyan crafts; and their son, Sunil, after quitting the pre-med track, has gotten accepted to a Ph.D. program in philosophy at Harvard. But the parents have kept a very important secret from Sunil: his cousin, Bimal, is actually his older brother. And when this previously hidden history is revealed by an unforeseen accident, and the entire family is forced to return to Nairobi, Sunil reveals his own well-kept, explosive secret: his Jewish-American girlfriend, who has accompanied him to Kenya, is, in fact, already his wife. Spanning four generations and three continents, The Limits of the World illuminates the vast mosaic of cultural divisions and ethical considerations that shape the ways in which we judge one another’s actions. A dazzling debut novel—written with rare empathy and insight—it is a powerful depiction of how we prevent ourselves, unwittingly and otherwise, from understanding the people we are closest to.

About Sweet Marjoram

In this new collection of essays, Henry draws on his 40-year career as an award-winning novelist, memoirist, editor, and teacher, as well as on the works of classical and contemporary literature that have served him as “equipment for living.” He develops a lexicon of 22 abstract terms, including Weather, Time, Handshakes, Privilege, and Empathy. He sifts the layered meanings of each term through research, wit, personal stories, literary quotations, and free association. His inspirations are Stephen Dedalus’s stream of consciousness and Hamlet’s soliloquies, as both in turn are inspired by Montaigne’s essays. Some terms suggest collective wisdom. Some invoke discoveries. Some reveal outmoded agendas and biases, or promise new ones. The adventure is in how, rather than in what, to think; and Henry’s terms of choice are salient to our culture and times, where too often they serve to prevent rather than to challenge original thinking.

Praise for The Limits of the World

“The Limits of The World is such a smart, compassionate and elegant novel, so deeply invested in morality and the subtleties of families, cultures, and continents, that it feels delicious and exciting to recall that this is Jennifer Acker’s debut.” —Lauren Groff, author of Florida

“The Limits of the World is the most masterful debut novel I have read in years. In beautiful, understated prose, it shows the complicated ways in which family splits and regathers. In this wise, loving book I saw my mother’s family, exiled from Nairobi; I saw me.” —Suketu Mehta, author of Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found

“Evocative and profound . . . an intimate novel about family that is, at the same time, an illumination of miscommunication across cultures, an exploration of the legacy of migration in both Africa and the US, and a philosophical rumination on ethical behaviors. Jennifer Acker’s is a wise and honest literary voice.” —Claire Messud, author of The Burning Girl

Praise for Sweet Marjoram

"True wisdom and beauty, in a time when we dearly need both." —Eileen Pollack, author of The Bible of Dirty Jokes

"Be warned! The far-ranging notes and essays of Sweet Marjoram are addictive. Once I began reading, I couldn't stop. I wanted more of Henry's wit and wisdom, his dazzling, surprising juxtapositions. I wanted to see him keep making the familiar new, and the strange familiar. . . . A delightful and highly original collection." —Margot Livesey, author of Mercury and The Hidden Machinery

"In case anyone is still wondering about the accrued benefits of a lifetime's reading, teaching, viewing and thinking, DeWitt Henry's Sweet Marjoram offers the spirited and enjoyable answer. A Shakespearean breadth of interest subjected to a steady inquiring pressure--the reader finds aphorisms for living on every page." —Sven Birkerts, author of Changing the Subject: Art and Attention in the Internet Age