Film critic Adam Nayman embarks on the truly herculean — and possibly futile — task of plotting “some Grand Unified Theory of Coen-ness.” Combining biography, film analysis, and interviews, this book is a veritable odyssey into one of the most recognizably tragic, funny, weird, and utterly human film canons in modern American cinema.

• A comprehensive, in-depth look at the entire idiosyncratic oeuvre of the Coen Bros.