The South African novelist on making a pilgrimage to Cormac McCarthy’s home, his youth in apartheid-era Pretoria and being shortlisted twice for the Booker prizeNovelist and playwright Damon Galgut, 57, grew up in Pretoria, South Africa, at the height …
Richard Osman: ‘No one’s born a crime writer. I write crime because I read it’
The Pointless presenter’s debut crime caper sold millions, with movie rights snapped up by Steven Spielberg. Richard Osman talks to Alex Clark about growing up poor, meeting his estranged father and why he wrote his first book in secretSometimes, Richa…
Legends of the fall: the 50 biggest books of autumn 2021
From new novels by Sally Rooney and Colson Whitehead to Michel Barnier’s take on Brexit, Bernardine Evaristo’s manifesto and diaries from David Sedaris – all the releases to look out for Continue reading…
Beautiful World, Where Are You by Sally Rooney review – the problem of success
How do you follow two brilliantly acclaimed novels? Rooney examines meaning, art, friendship and the price of fame through the story of two couplesThere has been such a lot of noise around Sally Rooney’s work, such an amount of fervour and possibly man…
retail, disability, zombies, etc.
A few short scifi/fantasy stories about dark situations that turn out surprisingly well. The day nearly everyone at Evil-Mart called in sick, and the sequel. One person who gets bitten by a zombie…. yet never turns. And some survivors of the robot ap…
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…
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…
What You Can See from Here by Mariana Leky review – a tonic in troubled times
Worldly woes come to a small village in this German bestseller sprinkled with fairytale magicThe okapi lives in the Democratic Republic of Congo, its glossy brown body sloping up from zebra-striped legs. It’s an unlikely presence in western Germany, bu…
Top 10 gripes in literature | Lucy Ellmann
Some distrust kvetching in print, but writers from Shakespeare to Valerie Solanas show there’s nothing wrong with constructive – and even destructive – criticismI probably started griping as soon as I could talk. I know I was a good sulker, and sulking…
More Than I Love My Life by David Grossman review – the personal is political
An Israeli family’s journey to Croatia throws up secrets that illuminate their pain in a beautiful exploration of the lingering power of historyDavid Grossman’s follow-up to the International Booker-winning A Horse Walks Into a Bar is a Russian doll of…