‘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 ]

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David Mitchell just announced his first novel in five years.

Today, Cloud Atlas author David Mitchell announced his next project: Utopia Avenue, which will be first full-length novel since 2014’s The Bone Clocks. (I suppose he has some time now that he’s done writing The Matrix 4.) Mitchell said in his announcement that the idea for the book came in part... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2019-09-26 12:40:53 UTC ]
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David Mitchell announces Utopia Avenue, his first novel in five years

Due out next summer, the novel will explore the power of music, following the career of the eponymous psychedelic bandCloud Atlas author David Mitchell is to tackle the story of “the strangest British band you’ve never heard of” in his first novel for five years, Utopia Avenue.Announcing the... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2019-09-26 10:42:58 UTC ]
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Ta-Nehisi Coates’s Debut Novel Mingles History and Fantasy

In “The Water Dancer,” which examines the psychological effects of slavery, a 12-year-old field hand discovers he has magical gifts. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2019-09-24 09:00:11 UTC ]
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Pan Mac scoops historical crime novel in two-book deal

Pan Macmillan has landed the first novel in a historical crime fiction series from D V Bishop. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2019-09-20 00:24:27 UTC ]
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Lorna Cook triumphs with debut novel to win Joan Hessayon Award

Essex author Lorna Cook has won the Romantic Novelists' Association's (RNA) prestigious Joan Hessayon Award for new writers with her debut novel The Forgotten Village (Avon). Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2019-09-16 02:19:21 UTC ]
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This Week's Bestsellers: September 16, 2019

‘Dr. Seuss’s Horse Museum’ is the #9 book in country, and one of three new titles at the top of our picture book list. Plus ‘This Tender Land’ sells well in the Land of Ten Thousand Lakes, and debut novel ‘The Secrets We Kept’ gets the nod from Reese’s Book Club. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2019-09-13 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Picador snaps up Scottish author Armstrong's 'blistering' debut

Picador has snapped up a "blistering" debut novel about youth culture, violence and gang life in Scotland by Graeme Armstrong. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2019-09-11 13:33:42 UTC ]
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S&S UK lands fashion insider's debut novel

Simon & Schuster UK will publish the debut novel of former fashion insider Sara-Ella Ozbek, pitched as “a filthier, more candid The Devil Wears Prada” and aimed at fans of “Fleabag”. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2019-09-02 21:57:13 UTC ]
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A Debut Novel Reimagines the C.I.A.’s Efforts to Promote ‘Doctor Zhivago’

In Lara Prescott’s “The Secrets We Kept,” young women participate in a covert plan to influence the Cold War using Boris Pasternak’s censored love story. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2019-09-02 18:51:54 UTC ]
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Rewriting the ‘Boy Genius’

Caitlin Horrocks’s debut novel builds on a rich tradition of women writers who complicate the myth of male virtuosity until it crumbles. Continue reading at The Atlantic

[ The Atlantic | 2019-09-01 11:00:00 UTC ]
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Reimagining Folktales, But for the Ear: A Conversation with Mahsuda Snaith, by Carolyne Larrington

Interviews Carolyne Larrington Audible’s new fiction podcast, Hag, launching August 29, features eight reimaginings of traditional British folktales by eight contemporary female writers, with folktales chosen from across the UK. The collection will be... Continue reading at World Literature Today

[ World Literature Today | 2019-08-30 14:21:50 UTC ]
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‘The Ventriloquists’: Featured Fiction from E.R. Ramzipoor

An excerpt from a debut novel that Booklist calls a "compelling historical thriller." The post ‘The Ventriloquists’: Featured Fiction from E.R. Ramzipoor appeared first on The Millions. Continue reading at The Millions

[ The Millions | 2019-08-27 19:00:55 UTC ]
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“Wicked Fox” is an engrossing – if convoluted – YA fantasy

Kat Cho’s debut novel “Wicked Fox” is a little complicated, but the poignantly rendered family relationships and fantasy drama are worth the ride. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor

[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2019-08-22 23:52:56 UTC ]
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‘Wicked Fox’ is an engrossing – if convoluted – YA fantasy

[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2019-08-22 23:52:00 UTC ]
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‘Wicked Fox’ is an engrossing – if convoluted – YA fantasy

[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2019-08-22 23:52:00 UTC ]
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‘Wicked Fox’ is an engrossing – if convoluted – YA fantasy

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A Nigerian American in Utah Strives to Be ‘A Particular Kind of Black Man’

Tope Folarin’s debut novel is all at once a search for identity, an immigrant story, and a bildungsroman. A Particular Kind of Black Man follows Tunde Akintola, a Nigerian American in a small town in Utah. Torn between the culture of his Nigerian parents, and the white Mormon culture of Utah,... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2019-08-21 11:00:12 UTC ]
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John Murray signs Gallen's 'darkly comic' debut

John Murray will publish Michelle Gallen's "darkly comic" debut novel set on the Irish border. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2019-08-20 14:25:46 UTC ]
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Shaun Hamill Has a Scary Story to Tell You

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[ The Millions | 2019-08-16 10:00:38 UTC ]
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Revisiting ‘The Tiger’s Wife’ and the Balkan Wars

In Téa Obreht’s 2011 debut novel “The Tiger’s Wife,” a young doctor untangles the peculiar circumstances of her grandfather’s recent death. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2019-08-16 09:00:01 UTC ]
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