‘I didn’t think it was possible to be a novelist’: Julian Barnes on literature, loss – and his late friend Martin Amis

The Booker winning author talks about how his most recent work was inspired by Hilary Mantel, and the way the books world has changed since his debut was published more than 40 years agoToo many people have been dying lately,” Julian Barnes reflects over the phone from his home in north London. He has muted the Test match, he tells me, so he won’t be tempted to shout at the screen. This is a follow-up conversation to a meeting earlier this year to discuss his latest novel, Elizabeth Finch, in which, although unnamed in the book, Hilary Mantel, who died aged 70 last September, played a key part. Barnes’s great friend Carmen Callil, founder of Virago Press, died a month later. “I did adore her,” he says now. And, since we last spoke, Martin Amis has also died, in May.“I knew he didn’t want me to ask him how he was,” Barnes says of his final communications with Amis, who moved to New York in 2011. “So we had a kind of football email exchange: ‘What do you think of Arsenal this season?’ and so on. At the end, I got an email saying, in effect, ‘Look after yourself, old friend.’ I took that as it was intended, which was ‘Goodbye.’” Barnes didn’t email him again. “He did it stylishly, as you would expect,” he says. “Stylishly and privately.” Continue reading... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'

[ The Guardian | 2023-09-16 08:00:25 UTC ]
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Sheikh Zayed Book Award Shortlists: Literature, Children’s Literature, and Young Author

The three shortlists announced today comprise nine titles selected from a total 39 longlisted works. Winners are to be named in May. The post Sheikh Zayed Book Award Shortlists: Literature, Children’s Literature, and Young Author appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives

[ Publishing Perspectives | 2021-03-16 16:41:14 UTC ]
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The Sheikh Zayed Book Award in Arabic Literature: The 2020 Literature Longlist

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Watch the Trailer for NIGHTBITCH Starring Amy Adams and More Book News!

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Leonard Riggio, 83, Dies; Founded Barnes & Noble and Upended Publishing

He pioneered the bookstore-as-superstore, a retail behemoth that dominated the industry before Amazon overtook it with its online reach. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2024-08-30 23:05:12 UTC ]
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Two Shores Press Will Highlight South Asian Literature

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Barnes & Noble’s Len Riggio, Dead at Age 83

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[ Publishing Perspectives | 2024-08-27 22:00:47 UTC ]
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Leonard Riggio, who forged a bookselling empire at Barnes & Noble, dead at 83

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Former Barnes & Noble chair Leonard Riggio, powerhouse of modern bookselling, has died at 83, his family says

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Book Club: Let’s Talk About ‘My Brilliant Friend’

The first novel in Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan quartet was just voted the best book of the 21st century. We like it too. Continue reading at The New York Times

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Martha Baillie on the Ethics of Making Literature From a Loved One’s Suffering

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Five Irish novelists to read while you wait for the new Sally Rooney novel, Intermezzo

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[ The Conversation | 2024-08-22 11:49:16 UTC ]
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14 back-to-school gadgets you didn’t know you needed

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St. Martin’s Press Responds to Marketing Controversy

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Barnes & Noble is opening 58 stores in 2024: Here’s a full list of cities that will get new locations

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Singapore: The Biennial Literature Prize Announces 71-Book Shortlist

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Novelist Kate Atkinson: ‘I do feel a need to prove myself’

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Liza Minnelli announces memoir because documentaries ‘didn’t get it right’

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