Marcel Proust's Swann's Way is the opening volume of In Search of Lost Time, exploring memory, time, and consciousness through the narrator's recollections of childhood in Combray. Through the famous madeleine episode and beyond, Proust creates a revolutionary narrative that moves through association rather than chronology, revealing how the past lives within us. The novel becomes a profound meditation on how memory works and what it means to truly remember.

WHY WE PICKED IT: Because Proust understood that memory isn't about facts but about sensations, and that the past isn't gone, it's just waiting for the right trigger to flood back. Swann's Way reminds us that who we were shapes who we are in ways we can't always see.

DETAILS: • Author: Marcel Proust • Publisher: Penguin Classics • Format: Paperback • Publication Date: November 30, 2004 • ISBN: 9780142437964 • Ships direct from distributor in 3–7 business days