The Book of Margins gathers writings from across Jabès' later career, extending the vast philosophical and literary project that began with The Book of Questions.
It is everything. Part poetry, part aphorism, part theological meditation, part philosophical fragment, these texts circle endlessly around absence, exile, Judaism, language, death and the unknowable. Rather than advancing arguments, Jabès constructs a field of thought in which every statement opens onto another question.
A contemporary of Blanchot and Levinas, and a profound influence on Derrida, Jabès occupies a peculiar place in twentieth-century literature: admired by philosophers, poets and theorists alike, yet never fully claimed by any discipline. His writing feels at once ancient and radically modern, moving through silence and fragmentation with an intensity that anticipates later experimental literature while remaining deeply rooted in Jewish intellectual traditions. Reading him is less like following a narrative than entering a conversation taking place at the edge of language itself.
For readers of Maurice Blanchot, Paul Celan, Clarice Lispector, Jacques Derrida, Emmanuel Levinas or the more mystical reaches of contemporary theory and poetics.
University of Chicago Press paperback edition, translated by Rosmarie Waldrop, whose translations played a crucial role in introducing Jabès to English-language readers. An increasingly sought-after title from one of the twentieth century's most singular literary minds. Paperback, 1993. Very good condition with light shelf wear and a clean, unmarked interior.
