Red Doc

FROM ANNE CARSON, WINNER OF THE 2026 NOBEL PRIZE IN LITERATURE

The celebrated poet transports her mythic boy-hero from Autobiography of Red into the twenty-first century to tell a story all its own of love, loss, and the power of memory.

“Carson’s lyrical language effortlessly lifts pure moments of hope and despair off the page. . . . Red Doc> stands on its own—and takes the reader on a singular journey of longing and grief.”—San Francisco Chronicle

GOODREADS CHOICE AWARD WINNER • A NEW YORK MAGAZINE TOP 10 BOOK OF THE YEAR

In a stunningly original mix of poetry, drama, and narrative, Anne Carson brings the red-winged Geryon, now called “G,” into manhood, and through the complex labyrinths of the modern age. We join him as he travels with his friend and lover “Sad” (short for Sad But Great), a haunted war veteran; and with Ida, an artist, across a geography that ranges from plains of glacial ice to idyllic green pastures; from a psychiatric clinic to the somber house where G’s mother must face her death.

Haunted by Proust, juxtaposing the hunger for flight with the longing for family and home, this deeply powerful verse picaresque invites readers on an extraordinary journey of intellect, imagination, and soul.