Books compete in a crowded market for a sliver of our attention. “One of the biggest ironies about this business is that there are lots of people who want to become authors, but that doesn’t necessarily equate with the number of people who are voraciou…
「典型的な論者を呼んでも、正直退屈」と講演会で打ち明けられた著述家が、「右でも左でもない」を目指す理由
＜新しい同調圧力、新しいプロパガンダが生み出されつつある、と辻田真佐憲著『超空気支配社会』。左右のイデオロギー対立が深まる今の日本社会で、いかに生きていくべきか＞ ああ、またか。今回のコロナ禍でも、われわれを動かしたのは科学ではなく、やはり空気だった。 もはや誰もが薄々気づいている。緊急事態宣言の発出タイミングにも、それにともなうさまざまな自粛要請の細目にも、科学的な根拠などないのだと。そこにあるのはただ、ひとびとが行楽に出かける大型連休などに合わせて、できるだけ刺激的なメッセージを発することで衆目…
The apples of an artist’s eye – in pictures
Artist William Mullan’s obsession with apples began in Waitrose in Esher, Surrey. An American kid who moved a lot with his dad’s job, Mullan’s eye was first caught by the Egremont Russet. “It was the ugliest apple I had ever seen. It looked like a gold…
Sally Rooney on the hell of fame: ‘It doesn’t seem to work in any real way for anyone’
At 30, the Normal People author is already the most talked-about novelist of her generation. As she readies her third novel, she’s bracing for more (unwanted) attentionSally Rooney appears before a stark, white background, stripped of even the most inc…
Children’s books roundup – the best new picture books and novels
Wild island adventures, hungry monsters, TS Eliot’s cat – plus the best new YA novelsThe remote wildness of a Scottish island blended with Celtic folklore and Hindu mythology: Jasbinder Bilan’s Aarti & the Blue Gods (Chicken House) is a gem for rea…
Fran Lebowitz: ‘If people disagree with me, so what?’
With a hit Netflix series and The Fran Lebowitz Reader now published in the UK, the American wit talks about failing to write, her dislike of Andy Warhol and her best friend Toni MorrisonFran Lebowitz is a famous writer who famously doesn’t write. “I’m…
Strangers on a Pier by Tash Aw review – an intimate family portrait
A Malaysian novelist of Chinese descent explores his roots – and the shadow of family traumaYears ago I was queueing in a fruit and veg shop in Cornwall with my half-Chinese dad when an elderly woman came up and asked him: “Where are you from?”“Liverpo…
Tunnel 29 by Helena Merriman review – escape to the west
This thrilling page-turner digs into history of a tunnel beneath the ‘death strip’ and marks 60 years since the Berlin Wall was builtIt was a plan that seemed to defy not just caution but geography: to build a tunnel to help East Germans escape to the …
‘Chipageddon’: how a global tech crisis came to sound quite tasty
First chickens, and now a worldwide shortage of microprocessors … the word ‘chip’ is the latest word to gain an Armageddon flavourAs if there weren’t enough disasters happening simultaneously, people are now speaking of the present “chipageddon”: the w…
A new start after 60: ‘I always dreamed of being a writer – and published my first novel at 70’
In her thirties, Anne Youngson wrote a book in her lunch breaks at work. It stayed in a drawer. Then she retired, wrote her debut and was shortlisted for a major awardWhen Anne Youngson’s agent told her a publisher had made an offer for her first novel…