‘I was told I was stupid’: Peep Show’s Paterson Joseph on his debut novel – and writing three operas

He starred in Peep Show, Green Wing and Wonka – and his first novel won an award. Now the star is making operas with 64 homeless people. Not bad going for someone who was written off by his teachersPaterson Joseph is, by his own admission, an unlikely opera librettist. He had turned 50 by the time he got round to going to one, and only went because he was in it, as the “crazy” voice of God in Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht’s Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny. “It’s not my world,” says the actor. But therein lies part of his mission: as a black Londoner written off by the school system, his life was transformed by the goldmine he discovered while truanting down at his local library.One of his discoveries, as “a melancholy teen”, was Pushkin’s verse novel Eugene Onegin. “I remember getting it out of the library,” he says, “just because it was a small book. And I started reading this poem out loud, at night in my bedroom. And I laughed – but I was also frightened and frustrated, weeping at the tragedy of it. When I closed the book, it was dawn.” Continue reading... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'

[ The Guardian | 2024-05-27 04:00:13 UTC ]

Other news stories related to: "‘I was told I was stupid’: Peep Show’s Paterson Joseph on his debut novel – and writing three operas"

John Green’s First Novel May Be Banned At His Old School

"Please don't ban my books in my hometown," John Green concluded in the TikTok. "It's really upsetting for my mom." Continue reading at Book Riot

[ Book Riot | 2022-09-13 13:44:10 UTC ]
More news stories like this

There’s No Place Like Grandma’s Abandoned Island

Meghan Gilliss’ debut novel Lungfish follows Tuck, her husband Paul, and their toddler Agnes as they all squat on Tuck’s dead grandmother’s island in the Gulf of Maine after running out of money. While Paul undergoes substance withdrawal in the rustic house, Tuck and Agnes survive on whatever... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2022-09-13 11:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this

Book Deals: Week of September 12, 2022

Angela Merkel’s memoir goes to St Martin’s, Berkley buys a debut novel by a former American Ballet Theatre ballerina, and more. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2022-09-09 04:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this

Review: Comics icon Grant Morrison's debut novel is a marvel of Oedipal camp

'Luda,' debut novel by veteran comics writer Grant Morrison, is a camp spectacular in which patriarchy is defined as a kind of magical Oedipal drag. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2022-09-02 15:30:56 UTC ]
More news stories like this

Ashley Flowers Loves an Airport Bookstore

When the “Crime Junkie” co-host’s debut novel came out, it didn’t seem real until she signed copies to the sound of boarding announcements. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2022-09-01 19:00:31 UTC ]
More news stories like this

Lust, Rivalry, and Ambition Culminate in a Betrayal at an Elite Art School

Set on the idyllic New England campus of an elite art school called Wrynn, and situated against the backdrop of the Occupy Wall Street movement, Antonia Angress’ debut novel Sirens & Muses is an exemplary depiction of what can occur at the intersection of art and adolescence. This... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2022-09-01 11:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this

Tess Gunty has won the inaugural Waterstones debut fiction prize.

Congratulations to Tess Gunty, whose critically acclaimed debut novel The Rabbit Hutch has just won the inaugural Waterstones debut fiction prize. The novel (about four teenagers—recently aged out of the state foster-care system—living together in an apartment building in the post-industrial... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2022-08-26 15:48:11 UTC ]
More news stories like this

Who Committed the Murder in Apartment C4?

Tess Gunty’s debut novel The Rabbit Hutch follows the inhabitants of a low-income housing complex, called the Rabbit Hutch, in Vacca Vale, Indiana. It’s a loud novel, full of many voices, since there are many inhabitants of the Rabbit Hutch, some of whom we know by apartment number and some by... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2022-08-18 11:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this

From child gossip columnist to acclaimed author: K-Ming Chang’s search for the truth

The 24-year-old’s debut novel Bestiary gained plaudits in 2020. Now her love of fairy tales and queer literature has led to a collection of short storiesK-Ming Chang’s origins as a writer can be traced back to when she was approximately eight years old. At school in California, she would amuse... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2022-08-17 08:32:12 UTC ]
More news stories like this

Nicholas Evans obituary

Author of The Horse Whisperer, the 1995 book that was turned into a popular film, starring and directed by Robert RedfordNicholas Evans, who has died aged 72 after a heart attack, was the unlikely author of the bestselling novel The Horse Whisperer (1995), which became a Robert Redford film.... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2022-08-16 17:09:25 UTC ]
More news stories like this

Review: ‘Paul,’ by Daisy LaFarge

A debut novel views a middle-aged organic farmer through the eyes of a 21-year-old woman he preys upon. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2022-08-15 19:37:36 UTC ]
More news stories like this

The Actual American Dream Isn’t on the Magazine Covers

Sneha, the 22-year-old protagonist of Sarah Thankam Mathews’ debut novel All This Could Be Different, is the dutiful immigrant daughter. Despite the long recession, she bagged a corporate job right after college, and a free apartment in Brewers Hill, Milwaukee. She regularly sends money home to... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2022-08-11 11:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this

Book Club Picks for August 2022

The latest from Jamie Ford, a debut novel by Anthony Marra, and two Jane Austen classics are among the titles selected by book clubs across the country for the month of August. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2022-08-08 04:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this

Who Do Powerful Men Become When They Sit Down at Home?

Taymour Soomro’s debut novel Other Names for Love begins with a son flinching at the sound of his father’s voice. Sixteen-year-old Fahad has been ordered to spend the summer with Rafik, his authoritarian father who manages their family farm in Sindh, Pakistan. It’s on the train ride there that... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2022-08-02 11:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this

White Capitalism is Destroying My Neighborhood

Gentrification takes center stage in Cleyvis Natera’s debut novel Neruda on the Park, which follows the different reactions the members of the Guerrero family have to the impending redevelopment of their predominantly Dominican New York City neighborhood.When a neighboring tenement is demolished... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2022-07-28 11:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this

Looking Back, Was I The Idiot?

Before we begin, I must confess to my bias. I am not an objective reader, so in some ways I have already failed. A few months before I read Elif Batuman’s debut novel The Idiot, I had a conversation with a friend that unlocked a safe in my brain. After, there was nowhere I could […] The post... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2022-07-19 11:05:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this

Where Life Lives On

An excerpt from Tess Gunty's debut novel The Rabbit Hutch. The post Where Life Lives On appeared first on Granta. Continue reading at Granta

[ Granta | 2022-07-19 10:43:28 UTC ]
More news stories like this

His First Novel Was a Critical Hit. Two Decades Later, He Rewrote It.

Many fiction writers wind up wishing they could redraft their early works. Akhil Sharma actually did. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2022-07-12 13:49:06 UTC ]
More news stories like this

Werner Herzog’s first novel revisits fanaticism and human folly

Herzog's novel follows Hiroo Onoda, a real Japanese lieutenant who terrorized the Philippine villagers of Lubang Island with guerrilla tactics for 29 years after World War II’s conclusion. Continue reading at The Washington Post

[ The Washington Post | 2022-06-16 12:36:39 UTC ]
More news stories like this