Book Titles—Trends and Formulas, Brilliance and Duh

Place

Place: Have You Been There?

"The writer operates at a peculiar crossroads where time and place and eternity somehow meet. His problem is to find that location." Flannery O’Conner

Let us search the recent winning titles of the Booker, the Pulitzer, and the New York Times Bestsellers (ranketime on the list) on for those that start with Place. A particularly rich list — contemporary writers are still obsessed with Place.

Lincoln in the Bardo, George Saunders

Elmet, Fiona Mozley

The Overstory, Richard Powers

Ducks, Newburyport, Lucy Ellmann

The New Wilderness, Diane Cook

The Dutch House, Ann Patchett

The Topeka School, Ben Lerner

A Passage North, Anuk Arudpragasam

Great Circle, Maggie Shipstead

Palmares, Gayl Jones

This Other Eden, Paul Harding

Western Lane, Chetna Maroo

Orbital, Samantha Harvey

Creation Lake, Rachel Kushner

The Safekeep, Yael van der Wouden

Same Bed Different Dreams, Ed Park

The Midnight Library, Matt Haig

Your rabbit hole for today — Let me know in the comments below which resonated with you, and for the books you’ve read, which titles really supported the books themselves.