One of the greatest prose writers of his generation, André Aciman, in his book Homo Irrealis, explores in essay form what time means to artists and writers who struggle to comprehend life in the present. The concept of 'irrealis' isn't about the past or the future—it's about what could have been, what never happened, but could hypothetically still happen. From reflections on the poetry of the metro and the temporal resonances of empty Italian streets to descriptions of the lives and works of Sigmund Freud, Constantine Cavafy, Winfried Sebald, John Sloan, Eric Rohmer, Marcel Proust, and Fernando Pessoa, and portraits of Alexandria and St. Petersburg, Homo Irrealis is an analysis of the power of imagination to create a place beyond the tight grip of time.