Jonathan Franzen is the author of five novels, including The Corrections, Freedom, and Purity, and five works of nonfiction, most recently Farther Away and The End of the End of the Earth, all published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. He lives in Santa Cruz, California.
Jonathan Franzen’s gift for wedding depth and vividness of character with breadth of social vision has never been more dazzlingly evident than in Crossroads
It’s December 23, 1971, and heavy weather is forecast for Chicago. Russ Hildebrandt, the associate pastor of a liberal suburban church, is on the brink of breaking free of a marriage he finds joyless—unless his wife, Marion, who has her own secret life, beats him to it. Their eldest child, Clem, is coming home from college on fire with moral absolutism, having taken an action that will shatter his father. Clem’s sister, Becky, long the social queen of her high-school class, has sharply veered into the counterculture, while their brilliant younger brother Perry, who’s been selling drugs to seventh graders, has resolved to be a better person. Each of the Hildebrandts seeks a freedom that each of the others threatens to complicate.
Jonathan Franzen’s novels are celebrated for their unforgettably vivid characters and for their keen-eyed take on contemporary America. Now, in Crossroads, Franzen ventures back into the past and explores the history of two generations. With characteristic humor and complexity, and with even greater warmth, he conjures a world that resonates powerfully with our own.
A tour de force of interwoven perspectives and sustained suspense, its action largely unfolding on a single winter day, Crossroads is the story of a Midwestern family at a pivotal moment of moral crisis. Jonathan Franzen’s gift for melding the small picture and the big picture has never been more dazzlingly evident.
LATEST NEWS
Jonathan Franzen on How I Write with David Perell
Jonathan Franzen is one of the most influential novelists alive today. He sees fiction as the most fundamental human art, and in this conversation he explains how he actually makes it: the discipline, the daily grind, and the psychological spelunking required to write characters who feel startlingly alive. Franzen has…
How Jonathan Franzen Learned to Write a Franzen Novel
To finish The Corrections, he had to kill his protagonist— and his idea of what a book should be. "Here it is: Description of a Struggle.” Jonathan Franzen hands me a journal he’s found in a bin, a record of his day-to-day entries from the summer of 1998. We are in a storage…
Jonathan Franzen at The New Yorker Festival 10/25/24
The New Yorker contributors Jennifer Egan, Jonathan Franzen, and Rivka Galchen discuss their work as fiction writers and journalists. Moderated by Deborah Treisman. Friday, Oct. 25th | 6 – 7:15 P.M. | SVA Theatre READ MORE AT THE NEW YORKER
How the “No Kill” Movement Betrays Its Name
By keeping cats outdoors, trap-neuter-release policies have troubling consequences for city residents, local wildlife—and even the cats themselves.
TOMORROW TALKS WITH JONATHAN FRANZEN: CROSSROADS
Arizona State University welcomed celebrated novelist Jonathan Franzen as a guest in its TomorrowTalks series. Franzen discussed his book, "Crossroads" in an online event. The conversation was facilitated by ASU fiction writer Matt Bell, a professor of English and author of the cli-fi novel, “Appleseed.”
Jonathan Franzen: What Happens If We No Longer Have Bookstore Readings?
Jonathan Franzen tells Adam Colman in this episode of the Writers Institute Podcast, “If we lose live book events, I would experience it as a great loss.” He describes here the humor, community, and conversation at those gatherings.
Arctic Imagination: Jonathan Franzen in conversation with Kristina Stoltz
Jonathan Franzen speaks with Kristina Stoltz in Copenhagen, Denmark in September 2022, as part of ther series Arctic Imagination — part of Nordic Bridges and supported by the Nordic Cultural Foundation and the Palaces and Culture Agency.
Jonathan Franzen Awarded the 2022 Thomas Mann Prize
The American writer Jonathan Franzen is often mentioned in the same breath as Thomas Mann. Franzen has now received the Thomas Mann Prize for his complete works.
The Story Behind Jonathan Franzen’s New Backlist Book Cover Redesigns
Alex Merto, Charlotte Strick, and Jonathan Franzen on a New Look for Old Books
Jonathan Franzen: Crossroads – In conversation with Wyatt Mason (92Y)
Jonathan Franzen talks with Wyatt Mason in December 2021 as part of the Christopher Lightfoot Walker Reading Series at 92Y
LATEST NEWS
Jonathan Franzen on How I Write with David Perell
Jonathan Franzen is one of the most influential novelists alive today. He sees fiction as the most fundamental human art, and in this conversation he explains how he actually makes it: the discipline, the daily grind, and the psychological spelunking required to write characters who feel startlingly alive. Franzen has…
How Jonathan Franzen Learned to Write a Franzen Novel
To finish The Corrections, he had to kill his protagonist— and his idea of what a book should be. "Here it is: Description of a Struggle.” Jonathan Franzen hands me a journal he’s found in a bin, a record of his day-to-day entries from the summer of 1998. We are in a storage…
Jonathan Franzen at The New Yorker Festival 10/25/24
The New Yorker contributors Jennifer Egan, Jonathan Franzen, and Rivka Galchen discuss their work as fiction writers and journalists. Moderated by Deborah Treisman. Friday, Oct. 25th | 6 – 7:15 P.M. | SVA Theatre READ MORE AT THE NEW YORKER
How the “No Kill” Movement Betrays Its Name
By keeping cats outdoors, trap-neuter-release policies have troubling consequences for city residents, local wildlife—and even the cats themselves.
TOMORROW TALKS WITH JONATHAN FRANZEN: CROSSROADS
Arizona State University welcomed celebrated novelist Jonathan Franzen as a guest in its TomorrowTalks series. Franzen discussed his book, "Crossroads" in an online event. The conversation was facilitated by ASU fiction writer Matt Bell, a professor of English and author of the cli-fi novel, “Appleseed.”