Genoa

The 50th anniversary edition of Metcalf’s extraordinary novel—with a new introduction by Rick Moody—is a reckoning with Columbus, America, myth, and his great-grandfather Herman Melville.

This is a 50th anniversary edition with a new introduction by Rick Moody.

First published in 1965, Genoa is Metcalf’s purging of the burden of his relationship to his great-grandfather Herman Melville. In his signature polyphonic style, the life of Melville, Melville’s use and conversion of the Columbus myth, and the story of the Mills brothers—one, an M.D. who refuses to practice, the other an executed murderer—vibrate and sing a quintessentially American song.

Publication date: July 14, 2015

Format: Trade Paper

Dimensions: 5.5 x 8.25

Page count: 264 pages

ISBN: 9781566893923

Paul Metcalf (1917–1999) was an American writer and the great-grandson of Herman Melville. His three volume Collected Works were published by Coffee House Press in 1996.

“A singular novel, blending history and fiction, Metcalf’s book follows two brothers, one of whom narrates, as passages from the journals of Melville and Christopher Columbus are woven into the story. It works! And is best pondered seaside.” 

—Vanity Fair

“Fascinating and engaging.” 

—Vol. 1 Brooklyn

“Metcalf’s masterpiece undermines the idea of authorship while showing a way forward for the novel.” 

—Stephen Sparks, The Scofield

“By cobbling together disparate extracts from a variety of sources, Metcalf has recreated that uniquely readerly revelation of finding in unrelated literature of all kinds resonances and echoes that inform one’s lived experience.” 

—Full Stop

“Metcalf’s investigation of the darkness lying at the heart of human existence is bold, unsentimental and unsparing.” 

—Lively Arts

“Genoa is a slippery book, a literary collage that nonetheless advances with a startling momentum.” 

—Literary Hub