Anne Gisleson, "THE FUTILITARIANS"

For most people, early middle age doesn’t include a philosophical reading list and a deep dive into existentialism. But if Anne Gisleson’s new memoir, The Futilitarians, is anything to go on, it probably should.

By turns intellectual, poignant, playful, and deeply funny, The Futilitarians explores both the personal—from Anne’s Catholic upbringing in New Orleans, to her father’s death, to the suicides of her sisters—and the universal, the questions that mankind has grappled with for millennia. What is the correct way to live, to experience loss, to grow old? And what does it mean to be human?

Anne is joined by Matt Sumell, whose stories have appeared in Esquire, The Paris Review, and others. He is also a recipient of a Glenn Schaeffer Award and an Arlene Cheng Fellowship.