Six great novels about old friends and "old" friends

Bobby Finger is the author of The Old Place, and co-host of the popular celebrity and entertainment podcast, Who? Weekly.

A Texas native, he lives in Brooklyn, New York.

At Lit Hub Finger tagged seven "novels about 'old friends' that I’ve found myself repeatedly recommending to some of my closest friends." One title on the list:

Samantha Hunt, The Invention of Everything Else

Samantha Hunt’s gorgeous and beguiling novel features a friendship formed in the Hotel New Yorker between one of its gentle young cleaners, Louisa, and its most mysterious and reclusive resident, a frail but eccentric man named Nikola Tesla (yes, that Nikola Tesla). Among myriad other things (like all of Hunt’s books, it would be a crime to define it by a single genre, plot, or theme), The Invention of Everything Else is about how terrifying it can be to reach out to someone with the intention of making a friend, and the transformative pleasure and privilege that can result from the effort. Friendship is as mystifying and powerful as a Tesla coil–one of life’s most wonderful risks.

Read about another entry on the list.

The Invention of Everything Else is among Sofija Stefanovic's eleven books about outsiders, weirdos, and underdogs and Rick Moody's six favorite books that take place in hotels.

The Page 99 Test: The Invention of Everything Else.

--Marshal Zeringue