A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF 2011, INCLUDED ON AMAZON, PUBLISHERS WEEKLY, AND NPR'S BEST COMICS LISTSThis beautiful minimalist story-Anders Nilsen's magnum opus-the culmination of ten years and more than six hundred pages of work that details the metaphysical quandaries of the occupants of an endless plain, existing somewhere between a dream and a Russian steppe. A downed plane is thought to be a bird and the unexploded bomb that came from it is mistaken for a giant egg by the group of birds whose lives the story follows. Nilsen seamlessly moves from humor to heartbreak. Big Questions has roots in classic fables-the birds and snakes have more to say than their human counterparts, and there are hints of the hero's journey, but here the easy moral that closes most fables is left open and ambiguous. Rather than lending its world meaning, Nilsen's parable lets the questions wander where they will. Anders Nilsen lives in Chicago and is the author of Dogs & Water and Don't Go Where I Can't Follow. | Big Questions by Anders Nilsen, Paperback | Indigo Chapters