The Pulitzer prize-winning author discusses her follow up to A Visit from the Goon Squad and how imagining a new technology set her writing freeWhen Jennifer Egan bought her house in Brooklyn 20 years ago, it had been on the market for eight months. The owners were an elderly couple, and the place was distressed. “There were holes in the floor and the walls were drab,” says Egan, sitting in the kitchen of what is now a beautifully renovated property, full of lovely art and restored period details. Remembering how it was fills the 59-year-old novelist with a peculiar and very specific dread. “What really made it gloomy – and I’m very conscious of this – was that the family who’d lived here, the child had grown up, the parents had gotten old, and I think they’d stopped seeing it. There are moments when I think: is that happening now?”It’s the condition in which most of us live – after a while, we stop seeing our surroundings – and one against which Egan’s skill as a novelist is set. She is highly attuned to the falsifying effects of nostalgia, complacency, solipsism and ignorance of history, and to the delusions of uniqueness that dog every age. She is obsessed, for example, with the 1870s, “an amazing decade, because, except for the telegraph, almost none of the inventions we take for granted now – electricity, say – existed yet. And yet, 20 or 30 years later, there were cars. I think we underestimate the degree to which the change we experience is what it’s always been... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2022-04-16 08:00:03 UTC ]
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As ebooks become popular, there are increasing opportunities to share and personalize the digital reading experience. That's where the upcoming Readmill iPad app and social network come in. Continue reading at AllThingsD
[ AllThingsD | 2011-09-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
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James Tye, CEO at Dennis Publishing, warns against assuming all your readers want the same, and reveals how the company is monetising its digital products. Continue reading at Media Week
[ Media Week | 2011-08-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Graeme Neill Publication Date: Mon, 22/08/2011 - 15:18 One in six children do not read a single book per month, according to a new survey by the National Literacy Trust. The research suggested the United Kingdom is polarised between those who do not read and the one in 10 children... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-08-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Graeme Neill Publication Date: Fri, 05/08/2011 - 11:05 A book dubbed Watership Down meets True Grit is among Sam Humphreys first acquisitions at Serpents Tail since she moved from Picador. read more Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-08-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Graeme Neill Publication Date: Tue, 26/07/2011 - 08:55 Digital is accounting for 75% of Taylor & Francis' parent company Informa's publishing sales, as it revealed half-year profits increased by 14.3% to £55.2m. For the first half of 2011, Informa's sales increased by 1.7% to... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-07-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Forbes Media has struck a strategic partnership with Techonomy Media, a new media business founded last year by former Fortune magazine editors and writers David Kirkpatrick, Peter Petre and Brent Schlender. Continue reading at Folio Magazine
[ Folio Magazine | 2011-07-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Wed, 22/06/2011 - 12:07 HarperCollins has made a series of senior level promotions, with current commercial managing director Simon Johnson becoming managing director, HarperCollins, and Tom Fussell moving into the role of group commercial... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-06-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Philip Jones Publication Date: Wed, 22/06/2011 - 16:00 Territorial rights are "obsolete", and contribute to the erosion of publishers' margins, but publishing remains an "intimate" business that would not be improved if local nuances are not respected, delegates at Publishers... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-06-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
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It's been two years since PW took the first snapshot of the publishing world on Twitter. In May 2009 we looked at the followings 16 imprints and publishers had on the social networking site. At the time, a lot of imprints weren't even on Twitter, and we thought the word "twittering" was an... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2011-06-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Katie Allen Publication Date: Wed, 25/05/2011 - 09:20 Two titles picked for BBC2s "Culture Show" special on debut novelists, broadcast in March, have made it to the shortlist for the Desmond Elliott Prize 2011. Ned Beaumans Boxer Beetle (Sceptre), also shortlisted for the... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-05-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Benedicte Page Publication Date: Wed, 25/05/2011 - 09:52 Author Alan Bennett trended on UK Twitter last night following a BBC2 Newsnight interview in which he reiterated his previously expressed view that closing libraries constitutes child abuse. Bennett told the programme that... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-05-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Philip Jones Publication Date: Fri, 20/05/2011 - 10:11 US bookseller Barnes & Noble has received an offer for the company from Liberty Media, a private investment group. The deal values the business at about $1bn, but Liberty said it expected to spend $500m on the acquisition... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-05-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Bookseller Staff Publication Date: Mon, 16/05/2011 - 09:10 Bidders for Waterstone's have a reported two weeks to express a formal interest in the chain, as parent HMV Group said it was in "advanced discussions" over a sale. read more Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-05-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Publication Date: Fri, 13/05/2011 - 11:54 Titles on Russian history, the populace of Germany and a spiritual travelogue have been longlisted for the 2011 Authors' Club Dolman Travel Book of the Year. Molotov's Magic Lantern by Rachel Polonski (Faber), Germania by Simon Winder (Picador) and All... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-05-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Publication Date: Thu, 12/05/2011 - 09:30 Lonely Planet is to move some operations to London at the same time as making 70 staff redundant in Australia. Staff at the Lonely Planet office in Melbourne have been told a large part of the company's web operations are moving to the UK following... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-05-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Katie Allen Publication Date: Mon, 09/05/2011 - 08:50 Pearson, Blackwell and Jamie Oliver are a few book trade names to make it onto the Sunday Times Rich List 2011. Vincent Cowdray and the Pearson Family were jointly in at number 64, with the family up £165m on last years figure.... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-05-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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In starting Bookish.com, Simon & Schuster, Penguin Group USA and Hachette Book Group hope to provide one-stop shopping for books and information about authors. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2011-05-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Wed, 27/04/2011 - 09:11 The trustee of the estate of the late Willy the Wizard author Adrian Jacobs has appealed against the High Court's order for him to pay £1.5m as security for the costs of J K Rowling and Bloomsbury before the plagiarism... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-04-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Katie Allen Publication Date: Fri, 15/04/2011 - 08:46 Titles on topics from Second World War bombers to the life of Roald Dahl have been longlisted for the BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction 2011. The list of 18 books also includes Edmund De Waals Costa-winning The Hare with... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-04-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Graeme Neill Publication Date: Fri, 15/04/2011 - 11:32 Independent publisher Choc Lit has bought a contemporary debut thriller and a modern day version of Jane Austen's Persuasion. Director Lyn Vernham bought world rights to Never Coming Home by Evonne Wareham, directly from the... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-04-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
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