Homo Irrealis

One of the greatest prose writers of his generation, Andre Aciman, in the book Homo Irrealis, explores in the form of an essay what time means for artists and writers who cannot grasp life in the present. The concept of "irrealis" is not about the past or the future — it is about what could have been, never happened, but hypothetically could still occur. From reflections on the poetry of the subway and the temporal resonances of empty Italian streets to descriptions of the lives and works of Sigmund Freud, Constantin Cavafy, W.G. Sebald, John Sloan, Eric Rohmer, Marcel Proust, and Fernando Pessoa, along with portraits of Alexandria and St. Petersburg, Homo Irrealis is an analysis of the power of imagination capable of creating a place outside the firm grasp of time.