Darin Strauss

Half a Life was named an Entertainment Weekly Must Read and a New York Times Editor's Pick—and a Best Book of the Year by NPR, Amazon, The Plain Dealer, and The San Francisco Chronicle, among many others.

Half a Life was called "a masterpiece" by Robert McCrum in The Guardian,[5] "one of the best books I have ever read" by Ali Catterall on the BBC,[6] as well as "precise, elegantly written, fresh, wise, and very sad ... indicative not only of a very talented writer, but of a proper human being" by Nick Hornby.

[citation needed] Strauss' most recent book, The Queen of Tuesday, is a hybrid of fiction, biography, and memoir, focused around an imagined love-affair between the author's grandfather and Lucille Ball.

"[8] In "New Pop Lit," Karl Wenclas wrote, "If Darin Strauss isn't the best contemporary American writer, he's near the top ... No one could write a better book!

[10] Strauss has been called "a brave new voice in literature" by The Wall Street Journal,[11] and "one of the most sharp and spirited of his generation," by Powells Books, "sublime" and "brilliant" by The Boston Globe.

[12] Strauss is married to journalist Susannah Meadows, who writes a monthly Newly Released Books column for The New York Times' daily Arts Section.