Granta 163: Best of Young British Novelists 5 review – more solipsism than state of the nation

The latest celebration of emerging literary talent brings thrills, charm and emotional punch to the page. But this new generation have taken an inward turn compared with the more worldly themes of bygone yearsEvery decade since 1983, an editor of the literary quarterly Granta has tasked a panel of writers and critics with naming the 20 best British novelists aged under 40. The first list, which included Martin Amis, Julian Barnes, Kazuo Ishiguro, Ian McEwan, Salman Rushdie, Pat Barker, William Boyd and Graham Swift, defined the nation’s literary fiction not just for a generation but a lifetime, at least for anyone young enough to be eligible for this year’s selection. Subsequent lists had star quality, too. In 1993, Hanif Kureishi and Alan Hollinghurst. In 2003 came Zadie Smith and Monica Ali, listed when Brick Lane was still a manuscript. The 2013 list spotlit Ross Raisin, Evie Wyld and David Szalay, who each went on to publish exceptional novels, while Naomi Alderman won the Women’s prize for The Power, now a hit TV series. If nobody talks them up as a golden generation, it probably says less about their calibre as writers and more about the diminishing clout of a marketing wheeze dreamed up when four-channel TV was still a novelty.The class of 2023 are a rangy bunch with some fantastic writing already under their belts. Eley Williams brings emotional punch to tickled wordplay. The slow-burn thrill of Eleanor Catton’s many-tentacled plotting. The tragicomic charm of... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'

[ The Guardian | 2023-04-16 06:00:03 UTC ]

Other news stories related to: "Granta 163: Best of Young British Novelists 5 review – more solipsism than state of the nation"


8 Unforgettable Literary Fiction Reads by Marginalized Authors

BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, and disabled authors are writing some of the most thought-provoking, original, and memorable literary fiction works. Continue reading at Book Riot

[ Book Riot | 2025-04-14 11:45:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Mario Vargas Llosa dies at 89: Nobel laureate from Peru was the last of 'El Boom' novelists

Peruvian author Mario Vargas Llosa, Nobel literature laureate and a giant of Latin American letters for decades, has died, his son said Sunday. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2025-04-14 02:33:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this


These YA Novelists Celebrate Queer, Fat Characters

Crystal Maldonado, Julie Murphy, and other authors discuss the importance of joyful representation. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2025-04-11 04:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Who Needs Intimacy?

Influential novelists are imagining what women’s lives might look like without the demands of partners and children. Continue reading at The Atlantic

[ The Atlantic | 2025-04-04 12:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Translator and Author Tim Mohr Dies at 55

Mohr, who translated such German novelists as Alina Bronsky, chronicled the Berlin music scene in a 2018 book, and helped bring to life a number of musicians’ memoirs, died at his home in Brooklyn on March 31. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2025-04-01 04:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Translator and Author Tim Mohr Dies

Mohr, who translated such German novelists as Alina Bronsky, chronicled the Berlin music scene in a 2018 book, and helped bring to life a number of musicians’ memoirs, died at his home in Brooklyn on March 31. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2025-04-01 04:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Can the Classic Road Trip Novel Survive the Climate Crisis?

Climate change is conspicuously absent from most realist, literary fiction set in the present day. Hurricanes, wildfires, floods, droughts and other natural disasters are part of our daily lives, yet they’re absent, save for brief mentions of a news clip for a college protest from much of our... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2025-03-04 12:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Who Were the Women Novelists Who Really Inspired Jane Austen?

“You see, but you do not observe.” –Sherlock Holmes, “A Scandal in Bohemia” * It all started with a book that made me curious. I was on a house call in Georgetown, invited to browse the personal book collection of a woman who used to be a professional rare book dealer like me. I spent […] Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2025-02-19 10:58:39 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Lit Hub Daily: February 18, 2025

Sophie Lewis chronicles the rise and fall of #girlboss feminism: “The funeral for ‘trickle-down feminism,’ eerily, keeps repeating itself, suggesting that, every time we report that the girlboss is dead, we’re being wishful.” | Lit Hub Criticism Rebecca Romney on unearthing a legacy of... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2025-02-18 11:30:57 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Giada Scodellaro’s debut Ruins, Child has won the 2024 Novel Prize.

Out of 1,100 submissions, writer Giada Scodellaro’s Ruins, Child has won the 2024 Novel Prize, and will be published early next year. The Novel Prize is awarded biennially to an unpublished work of literary fiction and “rewards novels that explore and expand the possibilities of the form, and... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2025-02-13 18:21:05 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Why America is falling in love with romance bookstores

Regular bookstores might be dying—but bookstores dedicated to romance novels are thriving thanks to TikTok and a desire for third places. Throughout Harvard Square, there are many bookshop brimming with the latest literary fiction and intellectual memoirs, patronized by scholarly types. But in... Continue reading at Fast Company

[ Fast Company | 2025-02-13 10:30:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Is the Book You’re Reading Literary or Genre Fiction? A 100% Definitive Guide

1. Check the cover for clues. Literary fiction will have the title in Helvetica along with amorphous shapes in shades of that year’s Pantone color.  Genre fiction will have a little cutout showing the face of either a wizard or a rakish duke. It opens to reveal the whole picture, and they’re... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2025-02-07 12:15:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this


What should the cover of Pride and Prejudice look like?

This week, the book-reading internet was apparently in a mild uproar over six redesigns of Jane Austen novels, which will be published—with new introductions from popular contemporary YA romance novelists like Ali Hazelwood and Tessa Bailey—by Puffin, Penguin UK’s children’s imprint, in March.... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2025-02-04 14:47:27 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Betty Shamieh on the Next Generation of Palestinian Fiction

I purposely avoided reading the works of other Palestinian American novelists making their ways into the world as I wrote Too Soon. When I looked up, I saw my book would be a part of a literary wave I had no idea I was riding, an artistic movement, that felt particular to the Palestinian... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2025-01-22 09:59:55 UTC ]
More news stories like this


British novelists criticise government over AI ‘theft’

Richard Osman and Kate Mosse say plan to mine artistic works for data would destroy creative fieldsKate Mosse and Richard Osman have hit back at Labour’s plan to give artificial intelligence companies broad freedoms to mine artistic works for data, saying it could destroy growth in creative... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2025-01-14 17:52:02 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Impoverished authors are told they should do it for the love. Try saying that to a dentist | Gareth Rubin

The average income for a writer is now £7,000. For our sake and the country’s, we need financial assistanceThis week will be like A-level results week for authors, but with added economic jeopardy. For a good whack of the 100,000 writers and translators in the UK, finding out how many books they... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2025-01-05 08:00:15 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Your Favorite Queer Books of 2024

I asked what your favorite 2024 queer books were, and here are the most popular responses, from queer literary fiction to M/M sports romance! Continue reading at Book Riot

[ Book Riot | 2024-12-26 11:15:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Three Literary Translators Discuss Their Paths to Writing Their Debut Novels

Writing fiction itself might be (and often is) considered an act of translation: from experience to language, from emotion to logic, from chaos to legibility. Perhaps it is a mere coincidence, or a stroke of good luck, then that these three fall debut novelists selected for our craft series each... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2024-12-17 12:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this