National Book Award

Autobiography of Red and The Centaur: Two Monsters Wounded by Herakles

A red, winged boy writes his autobiography; a schoolteacher in Pennsylvania limps out of class with an arrow in his ankle. Anne Carson and John Updike each retold a monster wounded by Herakles, and read together their books reveal two ways of living with a wound.

A marble relief in modern dress showing Chiron as a 1940s schoolteacher, Herakles in a leather jacket, and the winged Geryon holding a camera, the characters of The Centaur and Autobiography of Red.