The adaptation of Sally Rooney’s first novel can’t quite bring tricky source material – repressed characters, digital communication – to lifeIt was always unlikely that Conversations with Friends, the new Hulu and BBC adaptation of Sally Rooney’s first novel, would be able to repeat the lightning strike of Normal People. The latter show, another Hulu/BBC production based on Rooney’s bestselling second novel and released in April 2020, was the rare combination of right material, right time. Its straightforward, though elegantly told, premise – on-and-off, boy-girl love story over several years – and naturalistic, genuinely hot depictions of physical intimacy (one sex scene lasted 9 minutes and 24 seconds, a full third of the episode) struck a nerve during a time of mass isolation.Conversations with Friends is a harder sell. The book and series follow a thorny quadrangle of sex and friendship between two best friends/ex-lovers and an older married couple – none of whom, in classic Rooney fashion, seem party to their own motivations. It’s a murkier tangle than Normal People, made even more inaccessible by the characters’ psychological opaqueness and general aversion to speaking. Key figures from Normal People – Irish production company Element Pictures, director Lenny Abrahamson and writer Alice Birch – strive for a similar quiet, meditative realism on Conversations, with characters who communicate more frequently, and significantly, through text and email. (Rooney co-wrote... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2022-05-24 06:05:00 UTC ]
Author says she won’t revisit the beloved character because it would seem ‘inappropriate’ to discuss her sex lifeJacqueline Wilson has said she would feel “very wary” about writing an adult novel about Tracy Beaker “because it would seem inappropriate that we would learn about her sex life”.Last... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2025-05-30 15:19:35 UTC ]
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As a teenager, I remember reading my first novel in verse. I never expected to like poetry. But just a ... Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2025-05-29 11:30:00 UTC ]
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Feature image © Sarra Fleur Abou-El-Haj. There are echoes of Virginia Woolf throughout Honor Jones’ masterful, exquisitely crafted first novel Sleep, which explores the ways in which a childhood trauma haunts her main character, Margaret, and those around her. The novel opens with scenes of... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2025-05-27 07:15:09 UTC ]
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Thirteen years ago, my first novel was published. One of the first reviews it received on Amazon dismissed me as “just another Irish mouther of words.” I was, I have to say, more than a little bit insulted. I am circumspect to the point of obsession about the language I use when I write.... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2025-05-21 08:53:59 UTC ]
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Andreas Roman is the author of the newly released The Greatest Game of All (Flare Books), his first novel in English. A native speaker and writer of Swedish, Roman wrote The Greatest Game of All in English, then assisted its translation into Swedish for publication before revising the English... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2025-05-16 08:58:34 UTC ]
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While the novel remains a high-status cultural form, video game writing is still seen as a throwaway art – despite some of the biggest names in fiction being involvedI’ve been working in games for a little more than 15 years, and the main thing I’d say about it at this point is that it’s a... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2025-04-30 08:00:17 UTC ]
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For his first novel in nine years, Wally Lamb draws on his battles with self-doubt and addiction. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2025-03-14 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Discussing Dream Count, her first novel in 12 years, the Nigerian author shares her thoughts on masculinity, political chaos, and the future of fiction. Continue reading at The Atlantic
[ The Atlantic | 2025-03-07 12:00:00 UTC ]
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The Nigerian American author’s first novel in 12 years depicts troubled relations between men and women—but no tidy resolutions. Continue reading at The Atlantic
[ The Atlantic | 2025-03-05 12:00:00 UTC ]
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In her first novel since “Americanah,” she draws on a real-life assault as she follows the lives of three Nigerian women and one of their former housekeepers. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2025-03-02 10:00:13 UTC ]
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A prolific novelist, poet, painter and soothsayer, he was inspired by the chaos of his country and published the first novel written entirely in Haitian Creole. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2025-02-27 01:53:19 UTC ]
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Elyse Durham’s immersive and thematically timely first novel centers on twin sisters, born during the Siege of Leningrad, trained as ballet dancers at the celebrated Vaganova, and launching their careers at the height of the Cold War. The plot is set to detonate at a critical point in the Cold... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2025-02-18 09:57:15 UTC ]
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Exclusive: Former prime minister Tony Abbott to address Alliance for Responsible Citizenship conference in LondonGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastCoalition frontbencher Bridget McKenzie and Victorian Liberal MP Moira Deeming, and key figures from News Corp, are set to... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2025-02-11 14:00:07 UTC ]
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The book 'Lion' comes at a time of incalculable loss for Sonya Walger, who lost her home in the Palisades fire. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2025-02-04 11:00:34 UTC ]
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As fans snap up copies of ‘Onyx Storm’ the #1 (and #2) book in the country, author Rebecca Yarros is regrouping, swiftly. Plus Han Kang’s first novel since her Nobel Prize win, ‘We Do Not Part,’ debuts on our list, and Aurora Ascher has sympathy for the devil. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2025-01-31 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Joseph Earl Thomas won this year’s Center for Fiction First Novel Prize for his book God Bless You, Otis Spunkmeyer. Congratulations! The novel has made it onto several best-of-2024 lists, and has been praised as “a powerful examination of every day black life–of health and sex, race and... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2024-12-11 16:36:55 UTC ]
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