AND WE CAME OUTSIDE AND SAW THE STARS AGAIN

In this rich, eye-opening, and uplifting anthology, dozens of esteemed writers, poets, artists, and translators from more than thirty countries send literary dispatches from life during the pandemic. Net proceeds benefit booksellers in need.

As our world is transformed by the coronavirus pandemic, writers offer a powerful antidote to the confines of isolation: a window onto lives and corners of the world beyond our own. And We Came Outside and Saw the Stars Again takes its title from the last line of Dante's Inferno , when the poet and his guide emerge from hell to once again behold the beauty of the heavens. In that spirit, the stories, essays, poems, and artwork in this collection—from beloved authors including Jhumpa Lahiri, Mario Vargas Llosa, Eavan Boland, Daniel Alarcón, Jon Lee Anderson, Claire Messud, Ariel Dorfman, and many more—detail the harrowing experiences of life
in the pandemic, while pointing toward a less isolated future. Together they comprise a profound global portrait of the defining moment of our time, and send a clarion call for solidarity across borders.
Our literary culture depends on bookstores—and those irreplaceable sources of conversation and community, of inspiration and solace, have been decimated by the lockdown. Net proceeds from And We Came Outside and Saw the Stars Again will go to the Book Industry Charitable Foundation, which helps the passionate booksellers we readers depend upon.

GLOBAL WRITERS REFLECT ON A GLOBAL PANDEMIC: With authors from 34 countries as diverse as Kazakhstan, Sudan, Palestine, Taiwan, Cuba, Italy, Kuwait, Chile, Mauritius, and more, And We Came Outside and Saw the Stars Again is a truly global portrait of a pandemic that has affected all corners of the Earth. It serves as a record of global experience and what connects us across borders.
A LITERARY CORNUCOPIA: Beloved authors including Jhumpa Lahiri, Mario Vargas Llosa, Claire Messud, Andrés Neuman, Yishai Sarid, Jon Lee Anderson, Louis-Philippe Dalembert, Rivka Galchen, Daniel Alarcón, Chloe Aridjis, Lynne Tillman, Juan Villoro, Gabriela Wiener , and many more offer essays, stories, poems, artwork, journalism, polemics, and parables about how life changed during the COVID-19 pandemic.
AN OPTIMISTIC LOOK TO THE FUTURE: The pieces here are a record not only of the tragedy we've gone through, but also of human triumph over adversity, and point toward a future changed for the better. And We Came Outside and Saw the Stars Again takes its title from the last line of Dante's Inferno , in which the poet and his guide emerge from their journey through hell to see the beauty of the heavens once again.
A BENEFIT FOR BOOKSTORES: The coronavirus pandemic and lockdown have been a catastrophe for bookstores, which readers and authors depend upon to help disseminate great books. A portion of proceeds from And We Came Outside and Saw the Stars Again will go to the Book Industry Charitable Foundation, which gives financial support to booksellers in crisis.