Alphabetical Diaries

Description

Sheila Heti collected 500,000 words from a decade’s worth of journals, put the sentences in a spreadsheet, and sorted them alphabetically. She cut and cut and was left with 60,000 words of brilliance and mayhem, joy and sorrow. These are her alphabetical diaries.“Powerful and intimate. . . . [Alphabetical Diaries] is made up of Heti’s frank, funny, filthy, and casually philosophical diaries, ten years of them. . . . Heti has written a small classic; she has shot a lasting arrow into the hide of the memoir form. . . . A profound experience.” —Dwight Garner, The New York Times

“[Alphabetical Diaries] burrows so deeply into a single psyche that it transcends the personal, as if emerging from one collective, neurotic consciousness. . . . The [result] is exhilarating: both intimate and withholding, repetitive and generative. . . . A monologue that is meditative, propulsive and yet yearning, like a chant, a mantra or a prayer.’” —The New Statesman

“Alphabetical Diaries feels like the apotheosis of [Heti’s] writing style: a book that uses a rigid structural discipline to intimately lay bare the inherently chaotic, even arbitrary nature of consciousness. . . . Heti . . . has turned the pitfalls of the diary form—the relentless self-absorption, the combination of trivia and pathos—into a dazzling aesthetic virtue. Like a hologram, this book refracts an endlessly shifting light. . . . The results are strangely moving.” —The Telegraph

“From romantic hang-ups and desire to anxiety and ennui, [Heti’s] curated diaries articulate daily life’s ordinary and routine melodramas.” —Brooklyn Rail

“A radical adventure in form . . . by one of our best living authors.” —The Washington Post

“Fascinating. . . . An enthralling experiment. . . . Heti is amusingly self-effacing . . . and wise. . . . The alphabetised sentences give the book momentum and entertaining accidents of language create intriguing micro-stories on every page. . . . [A] picture of a committed, inventive, sincere writer and the times she lives in.” —iNews

“Inventive, achingly intimate, and vulnerable, [Alphabetical Diaries is] a refreshing experiment with how a sentence lands without further context. A true testament to, a celebration of, and a masterclass in the art of sentences.” —Paste Magazine

“Each book that Heti has written has pressed further into the possibilities of what fiction can be while staying grounded in the mining of the self. . .  . The genius of [Alphabetical Diaries] is in how broadly human and carefully constructed it also feels.” —The Los Angeles Times

“[Alphabetical Diaries] breaks new ground. . . . With Heti at the helm, this book is exciting, radical, and clever. . . . Just brilliant.” —AnOther Magazine

“Vacillating between the mundane, the shocking, and the aphoristic, Alphabetical Diaries constantly drew me into its gravitational pull. . . . The rhythm and randomness of Heti’s voice whispering from different points in time creates an intoxicating trance. . . . Alphabetical Diaries achieves something . . . sacred.” —Bookforum

“Sheila Heti is a master of form, constantly expanding the bounds of fiction while expertly defamiliarizing the experience of being human, ultimately drawing you closer to it.” —Nylon

“A thought-provoking experiment in self-reflection and prose, Alphabetical Diaries is perhaps Sheila Heti’s most intimate and most universal book yet.” —Shelf Awareness

“An arresting literary experiment.” —Publishers Weekly

“Enigmatic and intriguing. . . . A deeply impressionistic dive into one person’s mind.” —Toronto Life

“A profoundly unusual, experimental, yet engrossing work of not-quite-memoir . . . settling into the rhythm of Heti’s poetic observations gives way to a rich narrative reward.” —Elle
 
“Playful yet disciplined . . . [Heti] knows how to engage the mundane details of life with curiosity and thoughtfulness.” —Booklist
 
“Readers will become familiar with a set of thematic preoccupations: anxieties about professional success, churning erotic aspirations and frustrations, self-deprecating confessions masking self-regard. Heti provides some genuine fun in her invitation to discover more conventional coherence by reconstructing a chronological version of events . . . An original form of self-exposure emerges as we see some of the author’s verbal habits laid bare.” —Kirkus Reviews

“A cerebral, romantic exploration of the connections and questions that weave throughout [a] life. . . . Alphabetical Diaries is a feat of creativity, demonstrating Heti’s considered yet candid mastery of language and storytelling.” —The Skinny

“Every sentence is a world unto itself . . . [juxtaposing] the mundane and the profound. . . . Alphabetical Diaries reveals . . . intimate and embarrassing truth about the immovability of the self.” —The Walrus
 
“A book that is in many ways is an ode to the sentence; from the muscle of a single line to the power that comes with accrual. An immersive and hugely entertaining read.” —Sinéad Gleeson, author of Constellations
 
“Alphabetical Diaries is a testament to Heti’s artistic power. She gently leads the reader into new dimensions of language previously undiscovered. Beautiful and uncompromising.” —Marlowe Granados, author of Happy Hour

“I am drawn to Sheila Heti’s writing like a moth to a flame and Alphabetical Diaries is amongst the most affecting, exquisite books I’ve ever encountered. It is, simply put, utterly and startlingly good. Heti writes so creaturely, so bodily, that it feels like a whole new genre is being formed as we read.” —Kerri ní Dochartaigh author of Cacophony of Bone
 
“Sheila Heti keeps transforming my idea of writing. Her Alphabetical Diaries isn’t just dirty and funny and poignant; it reproposes everything you thought about a self and the way time passes.” ―Adam Thirlwell, author of The Future Future
 
“I read Sheila Heti’s Alphabetical Diaries slowly, over the course of about a month―just a letter or two each morning with my coffee, before I began writing in my own journal. It was a lovely, warm, intimate reading experience, one I savored while it lasted, and missed when it was over. A beautiful, unusual book.” ―Kristen Roupenian, author of You Know You Want this: “Cat Person” and Other StoriesSHEILA HETI is the author of eleven books, including the novels Pure Colour, Motherhood, and How Should a Person Be? Her books have been translated into twenty-four languages. She lives in Toronto.CA

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