‘Burgh books

“The Mysteries of Pittsburgh” and “Wonder Boys” by Michael Chabon

These novels are wonderful glimpses of the city’s bohemian and academic life in the 1980s and ’90s with characters as memorable as they are literate. This is how the East End sees itself when it is looking in a fictional mirror.

“An American Childhood” by Annie Dillard

If any Pittsburgh writer could lay claim to being our version of Marcel Proust, it is Annie Dillard. Her meditations on her childhood in 1950s Pittsburgh bring new meaning to the term “evocative.”

“American Rust” by Phillipp Meyer

Though this novel of murder, guilt and redemption is set in a fictional Pennsylvania steel town, it feels like it might be a quick jitney ride away from the Mon Valley.

“Tomorrow and Tomorrow” by Thomas Sweterlitsch

After Pittsburgh is destroyed in this contemporary sci-fi masterpiece, it can only be experienced as a hologram. This is a tale about the way Pittsburgh was as interpreted through virtual reality.

“The Homewood Trilogy” by John Edgar Wideman

This collection of fiction, non-fiction and shrewd family biography isn’t always easy to pin down, but it contains some of the most interesting passages ever written about Pittsburgh. Mr. Wideman has managed to turn the Homewood of his youth and young adulthood into a myth as poignant as anything August Wilson wrote about the Hill District.

DYK?

Pittsburgh’s ultimate hometown writer Gladys Schmitt (1902-1972) barely mentioned Pittsburgh in her 11 novels and 22 short stories. Her acclaimed second novel “David the King” (1946) sold a million copies and was translated into 10 languages. Her byline appeared in the best literary magazines as well as the bestseller list. She taught at what’s now Carnegie Mellon University for 30 years and started its creative writing program in 1968. Though she traveled far afield in her imagination, she rarely left Pittsburgh or the confines of her East End mansion.