California Rewritten

A Journey Through the Golden State’s New Literature

By: John Freeman

Narrated by: Lyle Blaker

Dive into the revelatory worlds of California's most exciting writers, and discover how their books uncover our history and can help us imagine our shared future.

Percival Everett, Rebecca Solnit, Tommy Orange, Michael Connelly, Julie Otsuka: As John Freeman writes in California Rewritten, "Literature of so many kinds and so many genres from so many different types of people—at the highest level—has been coming out of California and from Californians for decades now." Freeman, one of the sharpest editors working today, has followed the evolution of California's literary life since his teenage years in Sacramento.

In over fifty essays inspired by his hosting of Alta Journal's popular California Book Club, he offers an essential road map to California literature now. He shows us how the state's most exciting writers can unlock our understanding of the past, and how they can deepen our imaginations as we confront the most pressing issues that face our society: labor and inequality, migration and citizenship, technology and its limits, changing landscapes and climate catastrophe.

Incisive and compulsively listenable, California Rewritten will be a source of empowering discovery for any book lover who cares about the Golden State.

©2025 John Freeman (P)2025 Highbridge Audio

Disappointed, it’s so woke I can’t trust it

A book of a white men’s perception of non-white people’s struggles. It was painful to listen but he lost me completely at LatinX. It’s one thing to use this stupid short-hand in writing, but it’s another level of repulsive when spoken.