Joshua Ferris Books in Order

Employees at a Chicago advertising agency face a business downturn through gossip, pranks and extended coffee breaks. As jobs become uncertain, their shared routines reveal the rivalries, loyalties and private anxieties that make the office an uneasy kind of family.

A successful Manhattan lawyer suddenly begins walking and cannot stop. As the unexplained compulsion disrupts his work and pulls him away from home, Tim Farnsworth and his family struggle to preserve the life and relationships they took for granted.

Repeatedly divorced and disappointed, Charlie Barnes still hopes to claim the American dream. A cancer scare and the financial crisis force him to reconsider his failures, while his novelist son attempts to make sense of the man and his story.

Eleven stories explore ambition, marriage and the awkward misunderstandings that reshape ordinary lives. Strangers, spouses and lonely people search for connection and meaning, often finding that apparently minor encounters expose deeper fears and desires they cannot easily control.