PAUL LA FARGE is the author of two novels: "The Artist of the Missing "and "Haussmann, or the Distinction"; and a book of imaginary dreams, "The Facts of Winter". His short stories have appeared in "McSweeney's, Harper's Magazine, Fence, Conjunctions", and elsewhere. His nonfiction appears in "The Believer, Bookforum, Playboy", and "Cabinet". He lives in upstate New York.
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In September 2000, a young programmer comes home from a desert festival to learn that his grandfather has died and that he has to return to Thebes—a town which is so isolated that its inhabitants have their own language—in order to clean out t... SEE MORE