The If I Survive You author on the suspense of the Booker ceremony, Americans’ warped view of the Caribbean, and writing his next novel on the roadJonathan Escoffery, 43, was born in Texas and lives in Oakland, California. His debut, If I Survive You, about a second-generation Jamaican in Miami, where Escoffery grew up, was shortlisted for last year’s Booker and is currently on the shortlist of the Gordon Burn prize, announced on 7 March. The novelist Rumaan Alam has called it “a reminder of what fiction can do... It’s truly a feat that a book of short stories tackling such big stuff – family, love, violence, race – could be so damn funny.”What did it mean to be shortlisted for the Booker prize?It felt like I’d arrived in the UK for the first time, even though the book had been out for months. I’d already connected with readers outside the US because the book is partly set in Jamaica and talks about the African-Caribbean diaspora, but suddenly I was hearing from people in India and Australia. I’d watched the ceremony when Marlon James won with A Brief History of Seven Killings in 2015. I loved what that book did for Jamaica and to see it honoured in such a massive way was beautiful. I felt like that novel was capturing a history of tumultuous politics and rising crime I’d grown up hearing in a very matter of fact way from my parents: “This is what was happening in the 70s, this is why we left.” Continue reading... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2024-01-27 18:00:42 UTC ]
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Damon Galgut's The Promise (Chatto & Windus) came out on top in this week's reviews, with the twice Booker-shortlisted author picking up nods from the Guardian, Times and New York Times. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-06-20 22:03:08 UTC ]
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Resistance to books that cast heroines with agency and hidden talents has declined, but only after a hard-fought battle. Continue reading at The Washington Post
[ The Washington Post | 2021-06-14 12:00:00 UTC ]
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Walker Books is launching its third Young Sportswriter of the Year competition, in partnership with the Guardian and the Football School series of books. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-06-10 01:41:47 UTC ]
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Santanu Battacharya has won Spread the Word’s Life Writing Prize 2021, with "The Nicer One", hailed by judges as a "gut-punch of a piece". Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-06-09 14:59:56 UTC ]
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“The Every,” a follow-up to his hit book “The Circle,” will be available in independent bookstores in October. The paperback will arrive just six weeks later, but the hardcover will remain exclusive to independent stores. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2021-06-09 14:00:08 UTC ]
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Romance writer was criticised for episode in new novel when one of her child characters compares hiding in an attic to the life of the Holocaust diaristBestselling romance author Elin Hilderbrand has asked her publisher to remove a reference to Anne Frank from her latest novel after criticism,... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2021-06-08 11:53:10 UTC ]
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I have known plenty of failure in my writing life. Inspired partly by Henry David Thoreau, I set out to be a writer after college. Which effectively meant that I worked part-time as a carpenter and bookseller for the next dozen years without publishing a word. My current day job is as a teacher... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2021-06-04 08:49:40 UTC ]
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May Cobb, author of the new novel 'The Hunting Wives Club,' picks her 10 favorite page-turners. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2021-06-04 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Author Elin Hilderbrand and publisher Little, Brown have come under fire for a passage in Hilderbrand's new book, 'Golden Girls,' that some readers on social media are calling anti-Semitic. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2021-06-03 04:00:00 UTC ]
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HarperCollins Ireland has pre-empted a debut novel by award-winning actor and playwright Emmet Kirwan, to be published in 2023. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-05-28 22:53:36 UTC ]
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Here I am. Writing about mangoes, while eating a mango. I am a stereotype dream come true. “I try to avoid any mention of mangoes, of spices and monsoons,” said writer Jeet Thayil, in an NPR interview a few years ago. Yes, these are the stereotypes that we are often pigeonholed in. I debated and... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-05-28 09:09:52 UTC ]
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National Book Award winner Charles Yu discusses 'Interior Chinatown' with Times film critic Justin Chang at the L.A. Times Book Club Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2021-05-27 20:58:15 UTC ]
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A scholar of American literature at Stanford says it’s worth publishing. The agents representing the Steinbeck estate strongly disagree. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2021-05-27 14:53:04 UTC ]
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Six novels feature characters who hunger for connection so strongly that they transform their environments. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2021-05-27 13:55:11 UTC ]
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Lisa Taddeo, whose book "Three Women" broke the mold of immersive journalism, talks about her first novel, "Animal," and the struggle to write and live. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2021-05-27 13:00:06 UTC ]
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The shelf of funny fiction is not much longer than a knock-knock joke, but we have a few options to recommend. Continue reading at The Washington Post
[ The Washington Post | 2021-05-27 13:00:00 UTC ]
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Romance novelists make their picks for the season, and they run the gamut from sexy to sweet to a little bit murderous. Continue reading at The Washington Post
[ The Washington Post | 2021-05-27 13:00:00 UTC ]
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Weiner’s 15th novel is a #MeToo story that’s also a broader tale about how women find their way. Continue reading at The Washington Post
[ The Washington Post | 2021-05-27 11:00:00 UTC ]
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The book, written by a British chemist, imagines a wealthy tycoon’s disturbing plan to save (some) humans from a biological disaster. Continue reading at The Washington Post
[ The Washington Post | 2021-05-26 16:14:54 UTC ]
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A panel of executives from Bookshop.org, Libro.fm, and IndieCommerce discussed ways in which booksellers could use their platforms to take full advantage of the shifts in consumer behavior since the pandemic began. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2021-05-25 04:00:00 UTC ]
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