Stella Maris

By Cormac McCarthy,

Book cover of Stella Maris

Book description

'Cormac McCarthy was such a virtuoso, his language was so rich and new . . . McCarthy worked close to some religious impulse, his books were terrifying and absolute. His sentences were astonishing.' - Anne Enright

-----

'A drought-busting, brain-vexing double act' - Guardian

Alicia Western is the following: Twenty…

When you buy books, we may earn a commission that helps keep our lights on (or join the rebellion as a member).

Why read it?

2 authors picked Stella Maris as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

This is a companion novel to The Passenger, and consists entirely of a nearly 200-page dialogue between Alicia Western, a brilliant (and floridly hallucinating) young mathematician living on the razor's edge of madness, and "Dr. Cohen," the stolid psychiatrist tasked with understanding and treating her in the novel's eponymous psychiatric hospital to which Alicia has voluntarily committed herself. Temporally, the novel takes place before the events of The Passenger begin, and so serves as a kind of prequel to Alicia's brother Bobby's story, although the novels intertwine in a way that suggests they probably began life as a single door-stopper…

McCarthy was perhaps the greatest living American writer until his passing on June 13, 2023. Born in 1933, he published Stella Maris in December 2022, which was his final work and a companion piece to The Passenger, released just six weeks prior.

Stella Maris is a brief work composed entirely of dialogue between Alicia Western—"a twenty-year-old Jewish-Caucasian female. Attractive, possibly anorexic. She arrived at the facility six days ago, seemingly by bus and without luggage"—and her therapist. Their discussions span topics from her life and traumas to the foundations of mathematics, Los Alamos, solipsism, Platonism, and Amati violins,…

The Curiosity Cycle: Preparing Your Child for the Ongoing Technological Explosion

By Jonathan Mugan,

Book cover of The Curiosity Cycle: Preparing Your Child for the Ongoing Technological Explosion

Jonathan Mugan Author Of The Curiosity Cycle: Preparing Your Child for the Ongoing Technological Explosion

New book alert!

Why am I passionate about this?

Author

Jonathan's 3 favorite reads in 2024

What is my book about?

The Curiosity Cycle is a book for parents and educators who want to teach their children to be active explorers of the world. Learning through curiosity leads to adaptive thinking because your child is continually trying to improve his or her understanding of the world, and new facts and ideas become embedded in the knowledge that your child already has. Curiosity will also enrich your child's life because curiosity-based learning is internally directed and intrinsically motivated.

Our world is rapidly changing, and our children must be able to filter the cacophony of voices in cyberspace to stay true to their…

The Curiosity Cycle: Preparing Your Child for the Ongoing Technological Explosion

By Jonathan Mugan,

What is this book about?

Through curiosity, children carve out concepts from the environment that they assemble into models to describe the world. Children then test those models to see how well they predict what they observe, and they use the results from those experiments to form new concepts and models---leading to the next round of the curiosity cycle. However, our children are more than passive observers. They are an embodied part of the world and have brains that are predisposed to see the environment in particular ways. To get the most from their curiosity, children must build models about the intentions of those around…


Want books like Stella Maris?

Our community of 12,000+ authors has personally recommended 100 books like Stella Maris.

Browse books like Stella Maris

Book cover of Shoulder Season
Book cover of Caddie Woodlawn
Book cover of Wisconsin Death Trip

Share your top 3 reads of 2024!

And get a beautiful page showing off your 3 favorite reads.

1,355

readers submitted
so far, will you?

5 book lists we think you will like!

Interested in Wisconsin, psychiatric hospitals, and schizophrenia?

Wisconsin 58 books
Schizophrenia 59 books