I’m Eugene Havens, a novelist working in the classic literary tradition.

Somewhere along the way, literary fiction became obsolete. “Too demanding, too slow, and too inwardly focused,” critics say. “There’s no time to analyze the lives of individuals as literary fiction does. Life moves at the speed of technology.” In the name of expediency, we’ve rejected a pillar of Western history and our rich cultural identity.

And yet, we feel literature’s absence. A literary novel is a repository of emotional intelligence and perception. Literature once improved society, challenging the status quo through moral dilemmas (à la Dickens), and serving as a catalyst for personal and social growth. We can rediscover our lost culture by reading a literary work.