Adam Thirlwell: “Everyone has become a kind of manic everyday literary critic”
The Goldsmiths-shortlisted author on aliens, revolutionary France and our era of misinformation.
ByLiterature
Immerse yourself in the captivating world of literature with our collection of articles, offering literary analysis, book recommendations, author spotlights, and thought-provoking discussions that celebrate the written word.
How John le Carré infiltrated Oxford
When the author was a spy the university was his battlefield.
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H Gareth Gavin: “I’m more interested in stubbornness than in hope”
The Goldsmiths-shortlisted author of Never Was on transness as “a tussle with history”.
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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 our…
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Kate Briggs: “I took a philosophical vocabulary and offered it to a baby”
The author of the Goldsmiths Prize-shortlisted The Long Form on “patchwork” novels, and why childcare is a political act.
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The darkness of the secret world: Mick Herron and John Gray in conversation
The bestselling author of the Slough House series and the philosopher discuss spy thrillers, the allure of the Cold War…
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Benjamin Myers: “Historical fiction is not all tabards and turnips”
The author of the Goldsmiths Prize-shortlisted Cuddy on being a heathen, and why he wants to see a ghost.
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Andrew Wylie’s rules for life
America’s most feared literary agent on his friend Salman Rushdie, what Sally Rooney taught him, and how he has thrived…
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Richard Milward: “I use humour as a coping mechanism”
Polari is the “perfect slang for a freewheeling anarchist”, says the author of the Goldsmiths-shortlisted Man-Eating Typewriter.
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Americans don’t belong in Europe
Henry James showed how the New World is incapable of understanding the Old World.
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The 10 best modern poems
Poets including Michael Rosen, Kathleen Jamie, Andrew Motion and Raymond Antrobus select their favourite poems of the 21st century.
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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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The 2023 Goldsmiths Prize shortlist celebrates northern fiction
The award for “fiction at its most novel” is dominated this year by authors from and writing about the north…
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Lydia Davis’s war on Amazon
The short-story writer on why the tech giant’s profit-seeking is corrupting culture.
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Lorrie Moore’s Q&A: “US gun regulation should be a public health policy”
The author and critic on epidemiology, the joy of wine and coffee, and the soul of Abraham Lincoln.
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Colson Whitehead’s Q&A: “In the US, we throw up statues of any old dimwit”
The two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning author on Mark Rothko, Harrison Ford and tender baby-back ribs.
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From Daljit Nagra to Charlie Porter: new books reviewed in short
Also featuring National Dish by Anya von Bremzen and Metropolitan by Andrew Martin.
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Evelyn Waugh is laughing at you
His lethally coherent worldview still turns reality into a farce.
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The noble art of procrastination
I expend more energy planning work than doing it, but the writing routines of literary titans, from Balzac to Patricia…
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Cormac McCarthy’s art of war
In Blood Meridian the author reaches the dark heart of the American novel – where violence is timeless.
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