Rachel Cusk’s Portmanteau novel
Life of M, a rumoured “biography” of a certain celebrity, is more artful than the gossip surrounding it suggests
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Lola Seaton
Lola Seaton is an associate editor at New Left Review and a contributing writer at the New Statesman.
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Mark Bowles: “My book rages against the business-model view of the world”
The Goldsmiths Prize-shortlisted author on the value of art, making himself laugh, and finding characters in the café.
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Sally Rooney’s adventures in style
In Intermezzo, the Irish writer swaps polished wit and graphic sex for something deeper, messier and more mature.
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Lauren Oyler’s defence mechanisms
Can the master of the hatchet-job place herself beyond criticism?
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The paradoxical moods of Joni Mitchell’s Court and Spark
Released 50 years ago, the singer’s commercial breakthrough is a masterwork of ambivalence.
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In search of the meaning of sport
A new book shows how sport has shaped British history and society – but cannot explain why it matters…
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Karl Ove Knausgaard’s thought experiment
The Norwegian novelist doesn’t just want to show his characters’ inner lives, he wants us to take leave of…
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Jon Fosse and the art of tedium
The Norwegian author’s masterwork Septology finds a mysterious beauty in repetition.
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Zadie Smith: the reluctant historical novelist
The author’s first period piece, The Fraud, is curiously absent of her usual strengths. Was her heart really in…
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