Impossible Owls

"An absolute blast . . . [Phillips] is able to navigate extraordinary circumstances with curiosity, playfulness, and humility, and his enthusiasm is best seen in his extensive research within these communities and their histories. And this is why I couldn't get enough of this book: Phillips is the perfect adventure guide ? down for anything, talented enough to translate the experience."—Arianna Rebolini, Buzzfeed (Best Books of Fall 2018)

"As a journalist, Brian Phillips is willing to fall down a rabbit hole to uncover a mosaic of detail within a particular subject. This collection of essays presents some of his greatest examinations into the odd and intriguing. Between talking about UFO enthusiasts, dogsled racing and the peculiarities of the British Royal Family, Philips takes readers down unexpected paths that are as world-expanding as they are entertaining."—Wilder Davies, TIME

“There is a section in Impossible Owls where Brian Phillips writes about tigers, and he notes that what's most astonishing about the animal is not its size or power or beauty, but its capacity to disappear. This is an excellent description of a tiger, but also an excellent description of how Phillips writes. These are big, powerful, beautiful essays—but no matter how personal the content, he just seems to disappear into the paragraphs.”—Chuck Klosterman, author of But What if We’re Wrong? and Eating the Dinosaur

“I most love Impossible Owls for how it sends me returning to the central question that I enjoy most in any work I find chasing after: what do we, as writers, owe a single idea, but to stretch it out beyond whatever our imaginations thought possible? I love that this is a book of highways and historical touchstones and large geographic shifts. But I also love that at the heart of those bigger things, there is the gentle touch of Brian Phillips underneath it all, creating a landscape for a reader to see not his work, but to better see themselves.”—Hanif Abdurraqib, author of They Can’t Kill Us Until They Kill Us

"Long-form narratives both diverting and engaging . . . [Phillips's] keen sensitivities color each scene, and he rarely hides his feelings about the figures he meets. Phillips has fashioned a calling for himself as an American flâneur, casting out into post-colonial frontiers and marveling at the oddities he encounters from the comfortable distance of unsupervised creative prose . . . [Full of] genuine insight the author dredges up from his experiences as well as the sense of a full human mind at large in the world that so many of his recollections approximate."—Kirkus (starred review)

"When Phillips, a jazzy John McPhee, ventures out into the world in pursuit of understanding of a place, mystery, vocation, or obsession, he is attention incarnate. The resulting prismatic descriptions power his vibrant, multidimensional essays, which are built on rich veins of research and further enlivened with crisply recounted conversations and convivially self-deprecating glimpses into his state of mind."—Booklist

"This eclectic collection from journalist Phillips combines in-depth reporting with personal histories to explore broadly the contemporary human condition . . . The subjects have broad appeal and would be enjoyed by anyone interested in New Journalism as a literary genre. Phillips's essays are not only fascinating and thoroughly researched but written in a distinctive voice that conveys humor, awareness, and vulnerability."—Library Journal

"Entertaining, eclectic, and often insightful . . . Phillips’s narrative voice is consistently appealing, and often laugh-out-loud funny . . . Phillips’s essays leave readers with newfound appreciation for subjects they may not have considered before."—Publishers Weekly