Cloud Atlas at 20: What makes a novel tattoo-worthy?

Every author wants to write a book like David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas. Two decades after it first hit the shelves, the author of Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow celebrates its daring, dazzling appealPity the writer who believes they have written the next Cloud Atlas! A literary agent once told me that when a fledgling writer compares their novel to David Mitchell’s, he invariably knows it will be awful. Once you have written a book like Cloud Atlas, you have not written Cloud Atlas because Cloud Atlas is not like anything.When the novel was published in 2004, critics compared it to everything. AS Byatt in the Guardian invokes Herman Melville, Raymond Chandler, Martin Amis, George Orwell and Ursula K Le Guin among others. Tom Bissell in the New York Times adds to the mix Cervantes, Defoe, Isherwood, William S Burroughs, and, in a last paragraph twist, James Joyce’s Ulysses. Theo Tait of the Telegraph writes in a rare negative review that “Cloud Atlas spends half its time wanting to be The Simpsons and the other half the Bible.” This line is funny more than apt, but had I read it at the time, it would have sold the book to me. Continue reading... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'

[ The Guardian | 2024-04-06 10:00:31 UTC ]

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Laetitia Rutherford joins Watson, Little

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[ The Bookseller | 2013-10-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Scribd, HarperCollins deal casts long digital shadow

Whether publishers want it or not, the Netflix model is coming to the book business.The San Francisco startup Scribd, best known as a site for posting PDFs of documents, announced Tuesday it is launching a multi-platform digital book subscription service that will provide access to a wide range... Continue reading at Crains New York

[ Crains New York | 2013-10-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Elmore Leonard: Michael Connelly hails the book world's king of cool

An Appreciation: Michael Connelly, bestselling author of the Harry Bosch books, on being under the influence of the late Elmore Leonard.I never wanted to be Raymond Chandler. I wanted to be Philip Marlowe. I never wanted to be Ross Macdonald. I wanted to be Lew Archer. Elmore Leonard was the... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2013-08-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Can Foreign Authors Use China’s Social Media to Acquire Readers?

China's Douban is experimenting with crowdsourced translations of English literature, including SF and short stories by David Mitchell. Can it help authors enter the market? Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives

[ Publishing Perspectives | 2013-08-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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When Novelists Translate: David Mitchell and “The Reason I Jump”

Author David Mitchell and his wife K.A. Yoshida have translated the Japanese memoir The Reason I Jump into English, by then 13-year-old autistic Naoki Higashida. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives

[ Publishing Perspectives | 2013-07-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Why Did They Let Her on the Zimmerman Jury?

Less than two days after a Florida jury found George Zimmerman not guilty in the death of Trayvon Martin, juror B37, one of the six members of the anonymous panel, signed with a literary agent to shop her book about the trial. Continue reading at Slate

[ Slate | 2013-07-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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George Zimmerman juror dropped by literary agent, won't write book

On Monday it was announced that one juror who had found George Zimmerman not guilty had landed literary agent, Sharlene Martin. By 10 p.m., Martin announced she was dropping Juror B37 as a client.Maybe a book by a juror in the Trayvon Martin murder trial isn't such a good idea after all. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2013-07-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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'1984' book sales surge on NSA spy scandal

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[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2013-06-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Would Someone Take Advantage of America’s Most Beloved Author?

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[ Publishing Perspectives | 2013-05-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Pippa Middleton dropped by her literary agent. Why?

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[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2013-03-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The Sunday Conversation: Martin Amis talks 'Lionel Asbo,' money

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[ Los Angeles Times | 2012-08-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Banville to bring back Chandler

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[ The Bookseller | 2012-08-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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'James Joyce: A New Biography' by Gordon Bowker: An excerpt

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[ Los Angeles Times | 2012-07-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
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[ Publishers Weekly | 2012-03-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Canongate "went to war" over Assange memoir - Michel

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[ The Bookseller | 2011-09-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
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[ The Bookseller | 2011-08-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Publishers need to "stand firm" against digital giants

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[ The Bookseller | 2011-08-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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