Susan Steinberg, ”MACHINE” w/ Sarah Manguso

Susan Steinberg’s first novel, Machine, is a dazzling and innovative leap forward for a writer whose most recent book, Spectacle, gained her a rapturous following. Machine revolves around a group of teenagers—both locals and wealthy out-of-towners—during a single summer at the shore. After a local girl drowns, the narrator tries to piece together what happened and struggles to find mooring in the aftermath. In formally daring prose, Steinberg captures the violence of desire and its reverberations. The restless rhythm of the novel propels a sharply drawn narrative that ferociously interrogates gender, class, privilege, and the disintegration of identity in the shadow of trauma. Machine is the kind of novel--relentless and bold--that only Susan Steinberg could have written. 

Steinberg is in conversation with Sarah Manguso, the author of seven books including Ongoingness, The Guardians, and The Two Kinds of Decay.