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A Table for Fortune #1-4
A Table for Fortune: Box Set
“[A] heroic, fascinating and important work.”—Tom LeClair,
The New York Times
A Table for Fortune has gone to press and will publish in October 2026.
In A Table for Fortune , National Book Award–winner William T. Vollmann depicts the last half-century of American politics, war, and life in this four-part, 3,000+ page novel that is at once a family drama, bildungsroman, and national epic.
Volumes 1 and 2 gather from the half-forgotten annals of the near-past––Stasi documents, Iraqi newspaper articles, presidential radio addresses––to form a vivid and mesmeric saga centered on Elliott Stevens, or DAVE, a CIA analyst whose glee at winning the Cold War is matched only by the dread that culminates in the nightmares of September eleventh and the resulting War on Terror. The hero of Volumes 3 and 4 is Matthew Stevens, Elliott's son, whose efforts to escape his parents and divine the fate of his life result in homelessness, addiction, and perhaps even happiness.
Spanning from 1968 to 2019, these volumes comb together––with Vollmann's generous wit and Olympian prose––a staggeringly well-researched, definitive history of American post-war foreign policy with a deft, moving chronicle of a family's descent into resentment and gloom. Elliott and Matthew Stevens are “passengers within a divine bullet,” which, like Gogol's troika before it, overtakes all flying to its nation's end. This boxed set, with all four volumes in hardcover, allows the book to be read as as one towering novel, the magnum opus of one of the giants of literature.
A Table for Fortune has gone to press and will publish in October 2026.
In A Table for Fortune , National Book Award–winner William T. Vollmann depicts the last half-century of American politics, war, and life in this four-part, 3,000+ page novel that is at once a family drama, bildungsroman, and national epic.
Volumes 1 and 2 gather from the half-forgotten annals of the near-past––Stasi documents, Iraqi newspaper articles, presidential radio addresses––to form a vivid and mesmeric saga centered on Elliott Stevens, or DAVE, a CIA analyst whose glee at winning the Cold War is matched only by the dread that culminates in the nightmares of September eleventh and the resulting War on Terror. The hero of Volumes 3 and 4 is Matthew Stevens, Elliott's son, whose efforts to escape his parents and divine the fate of his life result in homelessness, addiction, and perhaps even happiness.
Spanning from 1968 to 2019, these volumes comb together––with Vollmann's generous wit and Olympian prose––a staggeringly well-researched, definitive history of American post-war foreign policy with a deft, moving chronicle of a family's descent into resentment and gloom. Elliott and Matthew Stevens are “passengers within a divine bullet,” which, like Gogol's troika before it, overtakes all flying to its nation's end. This boxed set, with all four volumes in hardcover, allows the book to be read as as one towering novel, the magnum opus of one of the giants of literature.
3052 pages, Kindle Edition
First published March 3, 2026
About the author
William T. Vollmann
116 books1,638 followersWilliam Tanner Vollmann is an American author, journalist, and essayist known for his ambitious and often unconventional literary works. Born on July 28, 1959, in Los Angeles, California, Vollmann has earned a reputation as one of the most prolific and daring writers of his generation.
Vollmann's early life was marked by tragedy; his sister drowned when he was a child, an event that profoundly impacted him and influenced his writing. He attended Deep Springs College, a small, isolated liberal arts college in California, before transferring to Cornell University, where he studied comparative literature. After college, Vollmann spent some time in Afghanistan as a freelance journalist, an experience that would later inform some of his works.
His first novel, You Bright and Risen Angels (1987), is a sprawling, experimental work that blends fantasy, history, and social commentary. This novel set the tone for much of his later work, characterized by its complexity, depth, and a willingness to tackle difficult and controversial subjects.
Vollmann's most acclaimed work is The Rainbow Stories (1989), a collection of interlinked short stories that explore the darker sides of human nature. His nonfiction is equally notable, particularly Rising Up and Rising Down (2003), a seven-volume treatise on violence, which was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award.
Over the years, Vollmann has continued to write prolifically, producing novels, short stories, essays, and journalistic pieces. His work often delves into themes of violence, poverty, and the struggles of marginalized people. He has received several awards, including the National Book Award for Fiction in 2005 for Europe Central, a novel about the moral dilemmas faced by individuals during World War II.
Vollmann is known for his immersive research methods, often placing himself in dangerous situations to better understand his subjects. Despite his literary success, he remains somewhat of an outsider in the literary world, frequently shunning public appearances and maintaining a low profile.
In addition to his writing, Vollmann is also an accomplished photographer, and his photographs often accompany his written work. Painting is also an art where's working on, celebrating expositions in the United States, showing his paintings. His diverse interests and unflinching approach to his subjects have made him a unique voice in contemporary American literature.
Vollmann's early life was marked by tragedy; his sister drowned when he was a child, an event that profoundly impacted him and influenced his writing. He attended Deep Springs College, a small, isolated liberal arts college in California, before transferring to Cornell University, where he studied comparative literature. After college, Vollmann spent some time in Afghanistan as a freelance journalist, an experience that would later inform some of his works.
His first novel, You Bright and Risen Angels (1987), is a sprawling, experimental work that blends fantasy, history, and social commentary. This novel set the tone for much of his later work, characterized by its complexity, depth, and a willingness to tackle difficult and controversial subjects.
Vollmann's most acclaimed work is The Rainbow Stories (1989), a collection of interlinked short stories that explore the darker sides of human nature. His nonfiction is equally notable, particularly Rising Up and Rising Down (2003), a seven-volume treatise on violence, which was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award.
Over the years, Vollmann has continued to write prolifically, producing novels, short stories, essays, and journalistic pieces. His work often delves into themes of violence, poverty, and the struggles of marginalized people. He has received several awards, including the National Book Award for Fiction in 2005 for Europe Central, a novel about the moral dilemmas faced by individuals during World War II.
Vollmann is known for his immersive research methods, often placing himself in dangerous situations to better understand his subjects. Despite his literary success, he remains somewhat of an outsider in the literary world, frequently shunning public appearances and maintaining a low profile.
In addition to his writing, Vollmann is also an accomplished photographer, and his photographs often accompany his written work. Painting is also an art where's working on, celebrating expositions in the United States, showing his paintings. His diverse interests and unflinching approach to his subjects have made him a unique voice in contemporary American literature.
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
"It’s a pleasure (and a relief) to attest that A Table for Fortune may well be Vollmann’s finest—and is certainly his most personal—work, combining the political quests that have long marked his career with the agonies the author was experiencing while writing it."
https://www.altaonline.com/books/fict...
November 6, 2026
volume i reviewed (3 stars)
volume ii reviewed (3 stars)
volume iii reviewed (3 stars)
volume iv reviewed (2 stars)
i'll probably put some summing-up thoughts here, but those four reviews will tell you most of what i thought. was this a solid investment of $140 (MSRP: $200)? no it was not. was this worth the 3.5k pages? no. was this a great work? not one bit. was it a good read? it wasn't terrible. would i have made it through were it not under the lauded name William T. Vollmann? definitely not. do i think he set out to address an interesting question? more or less. did he achieve his goal, if his goal was to answer that question? no; i think he had no answer, and furthermore lost sight of the question.
i mean, maybe i'm wrong; who am i to shit on william vollmann? but i don't think i am. i've spoken with (been yelled at by) several die-hard supporters of this book, but don't believe any of them have actually read it(*). there's really no excuse for volume ii, and volume iv is a sagging letdown. volume iii is pretty solid. volume i has a lot of promise, but wouldn't stand by itself, and isn't justified by the latter three volumes.
i really like what i've read from vollmann before, especially his longform journalism, but i believe this project got away from him. i'm sorry to shit on it, bill, and if you're ever at hartsfield for a multiday layover i'll come buy you a drink, but this was not good. that's all the less pleasant to write because, read at an autobiographical level, this is clearly vollmann's most personal work (i can assert this due to recency--i've not read his full oeuvre). like DAVE, he's lost a string of colon. like Matthew, his only child died early and ignobly, though much loved. like DAVE, he's almost certainly close to death. read in that eye, it's a brave work...but it's still, not, like, very good as a standalone novel. and i feel that's the way vollmann would want to be judged, which might be very different from why he wanted to write.
vollmann provides references in the back of volume iv, which earns him an approving nod. they would have been useful several times (both volume i and volume iii had elements that i doubted, noted in my reviews), had i known they were there. he should have mentioned them in his meandering foreward.
(*) right now, the book has five reviews on goodreads: my 2.5, and 4x 5 stars. of the 5 star reviews, one is empty, two clearly state that they have not yet completed (or in one case, received) the work, and the other misattributes the unfortunate War and Peace comparison to a publisher's blurb (it's in Vollmann's foreward), so do with that what you will.
volume ii reviewed (3 stars)
volume iii reviewed (3 stars)
volume iv reviewed (2 stars)
i'll probably put some summing-up thoughts here, but those four reviews will tell you most of what i thought. was this a solid investment of $140 (MSRP: $200)? no it was not. was this worth the 3.5k pages? no. was this a great work? not one bit. was it a good read? it wasn't terrible. would i have made it through were it not under the lauded name William T. Vollmann? definitely not. do i think he set out to address an interesting question? more or less. did he achieve his goal, if his goal was to answer that question? no; i think he had no answer, and furthermore lost sight of the question.
i mean, maybe i'm wrong; who am i to shit on william vollmann? but i don't think i am. i've spoken with (been yelled at by) several die-hard supporters of this book, but don't believe any of them have actually read it(*). there's really no excuse for volume ii, and volume iv is a sagging letdown. volume iii is pretty solid. volume i has a lot of promise, but wouldn't stand by itself, and isn't justified by the latter three volumes.
i really like what i've read from vollmann before, especially his longform journalism, but i believe this project got away from him. i'm sorry to shit on it, bill, and if you're ever at hartsfield for a multiday layover i'll come buy you a drink, but this was not good. that's all the less pleasant to write because, read at an autobiographical level, this is clearly vollmann's most personal work (i can assert this due to recency--i've not read his full oeuvre). like DAVE, he's lost a string of colon. like Matthew, his only child died early and ignobly, though much loved. like DAVE, he's almost certainly close to death. read in that eye, it's a brave work...but it's still, not, like, very good as a standalone novel. and i feel that's the way vollmann would want to be judged, which might be very different from why he wanted to write.
vollmann provides references in the back of volume iv, which earns him an approving nod. they would have been useful several times (both volume i and volume iii had elements that i doubted, noted in my reviews), had i known they were there. he should have mentioned them in his meandering foreward.
(*) right now, the book has five reviews on goodreads: my 2.5, and 4x 5 stars. of the 5 star reviews, one is empty, two clearly state that they have not yet completed (or in one case, received) the work, and the other misattributes the unfortunate War and Peace comparison to a publisher's blurb (it's in Vollmann's foreward), so do with that what you will.
Currently Reading
June 24, 2025Based on the little crumbs of information available thus far, it could be among his best works in his solid catalogue. Will the 3,400 pages be enough? This will be an early birthday present for me.
Review of advance copy
Wanted to leave an early review for those considering picking it up. I'm still in Volume 1 right now, not rushing it, really taking my time looking up people and references, and I am thoroughly enjoying it. It is very much Vollmann, and it is a well-researched and expertly crafted work; but anyone who has read Vollmann knows those go hand-in-hand.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews