With a reader's perspective and a master writer's skill, critically acclaimed novelist Lynne Sharon Schwartz takes on the world at large

Communication, while essential, is almost impossible to maintain perfectly—a truism Lynne Sharon Schwartz demonstrates in this stunning essay collection. In one section, she discovers that one typo could completely derail a project while translating an Italian account of the Holocaust. In another essay, she deconstructs our dependence on the telephone. Most movingly, she details the ways that friendship can grow in the most unlikely places, and how difficult those bonds can be to maintain.

In a previous collection of essays, Ruined by Reading, Schwartz took on the world of literature, writing, and books. Now, Schwartz extends her focus while continuing to explore her subject honestly and forcefully.