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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While we don’t know what the state of the our pandemic society will be come September, we can at least be sure that we’ll all be getting a little Joy Williams, as a treat. Specifically, a new novel—her fifth, and her first since 2000’s The Quick and the Dead, which was a runner-up for the […] Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2021-03-03 21:01:23 UTC ]
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Megan Nolan's "Acts of Desperation," about a woman in thrall to an older man, stands out from similar tales with an uncannily self-aware narrator. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2021-03-03 15:00:19 UTC ]
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In “The Committed,” a follow-up to “The Sympathizer,” Viet Thanh Nguyen’s nameless spy navigates a Paris underworld rife with drug deals, violence and colonialism’s ghosts. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2021-02-26 10:00:03 UTC ]
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Pakistan, and particularly her mother's home city of Karachi, have long held a fascination for British journalist Samira Shackle. In fact, in 2012 she quit her job at the New Statesman and for a year became a Karachiite. Shackle says: “I had an urge to reconnect with this heritage—this was... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-02-26 06:47:55 UTC ]
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Writing duo Whitney Phillips and Ryan M. Milner negotiate how funny writing should be in an unfunny time. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2021-02-26 05:00:00 UTC ]
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Organisers of the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival have confirmed live events will go ahead later this year, after the government unveiled its roadmap out of lockdown. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-02-25 01:25:47 UTC ]
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Wattpad has increasingly become a very popular platform among young writers. Allowing anyone to share their works and providing a route for aspiring authors to be discovered by the publishing industry, it has become a compelling route for those to looking to develop professionally as a writer... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-02-24 03:00:18 UTC ]
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Fourth Estate has swooped for Magpie, the “exhilarating” new novel by Elizabeth Day, written mostly during the first lockdown. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-02-23 23:47:19 UTC ]
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Poet and countercultural pioneer put on trial for publishing Allen Ginsberg’s Howl went on to become a beloved icon of San FranciscoLawrence Ferlinghetti, the poet, publisher, painter and political activist who co-founded the famous City Lights bookshop in San Francisco and became an icon of the... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2021-02-23 19:42:46 UTC ]
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Many of our favorite books are better as films. Other times, it’s better to stick with the book. Continue reading at The Washington Post
[ The Washington Post | 2021-02-23 17:17:00 UTC ]
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Faber is to publish Lucy Caldwell's first novel in nearly a decade, These Days. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-02-23 01:30:10 UTC ]
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Chatto & Windus has signed a new two-book deal with The Language of Kindness author Christie Watson, including a joint project with her 16-year-old daughter Bella Egberongbe. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-02-22 16:24:18 UTC ]
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Literary pivot alert! Yesterday, Entertainment Weekly announced we’re getting a new novel from A Gentleman in Moscow and Rules of Civility author Amor Towles, out from Penguin Random House on October 5. Towles told EW that he “likes to mix it up,” and he has; while his previous novels centered... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2021-02-18 17:03:11 UTC ]
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Hutchinson has landed the “hypnotic” new novel by bestselling author Amor Towles. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-02-18 01:21:04 UTC ]
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The Borough Press has landed All My Mothers by Costa shortlistee Joanna Glen in a “significant” five-figure deal. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-02-18 01:00:45 UTC ]
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Australian author Charlotte McConaghy brings 'Migrations' to the L.A. Times Book Club Feb. 24. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2021-02-17 16:00:28 UTC ]
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Emily Layden, author of the new novel 'All Girls,' picks ten of her favorite books set on-campus. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2021-02-17 05:00:00 UTC ]
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It is hard to talk about sex and literature without making some sort of Fifty Shades of Grey reference. But where Fifty Shades shows a caricature of S&M, the new anthology Kink is a celebration of the range of human desires. From the power of control and the titillation of voyeurism, this... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2021-02-12 12:00:00 UTC ]
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John Murray Publishers has acquired a new novel from Women’s Prize for Fiction winner Lisa McInerney. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-02-12 10:49:32 UTC ]
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Melvin Burgess’ Three Bullets, which interrogates themes of brainwashing and the far-right, will be released this summer alongside a 25th-anniversary edition of the author’s pioneering YA novel Junk. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-02-11 21:15:24 UTC ]
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