Elegant, luxurious, catlike … Netflix’s Andrew Scott-starring series is devastatingly unhurried – although not all viewers agree• Don’t get the What’s On TV newsletter delivered to your inbox? Sign up hereThe reviews for Netflix’s elegant new Patricia Highsmith adaptation, Ripley, have been mixed. While some critics have adored its moody black-and-white posturing and even labelled it a work of art, others have been less impressed. Is Andrew Scott a bit too old to be Tom Ripley, who is 25 in the first novel of the series? Does it compare unfavourably with the peerless Anthony Minghella version from 1999, or to 1960’s Plein Soleil, in which Alain Delon played the scheming sociopath? At eight episodes, with some pushing over the hour mark, is it stretching a relatively short novel beyond its limits?These are all questions of taste, of course, but it is hard to deny that Ripley is slow. It takes its time, it builds its case, and it luxuriates in the beauty and/or grubbiness of its surroundings. There are lingering shots of staircases – so many staircases – and statues, skies and scenery. This is a highly aestheticised world, and the noir-ish palette works surprisingly well, considering that much of its early action is set on the Amalfi Coast. You might think that such sun-kissed luxury would disappear in monochrome, but it only makes it all the more eerie, and the sinister threat all the more pronounced. Continue reading... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2024-04-09 11:00:06 UTC ]
Jonathan Franzen is set to return in the US next year with Crossroads, the first novel in a new trilogy from the author. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-11-16 09:26:52 UTC ]
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John Murray is publishing a new novel from Susan Beale, whose debut novel The Good Guy was shortlisted for 2016's Costa First Novel Award. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-11-05 19:51:11 UTC ]
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In her first novel published in 14 years, author Julia Alvarez explores grief, isolation, and sisterhood. Afterlife follows Antonia, a writer and retiring English professor, who has just lost her husband Sam. As she reimagines what her life will be without her husband, Antonia also struggles... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2020-11-02 12:00:33 UTC ]
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I DON’T KNOW when I first became aware of Lynne Sharon Schwartz’s writing, but it was probably sometime between 1980, when Raymond Carver lauded her on the basis of her National Book Award–nominated first novel Rough Strife, and 1989, when Sven Birkerts raved about Schwartz’s PEN/Faulkner... Continue reading at Los Angeles Review of Books
[ Los Angeles Review of Books | 2020-10-29 15:00:49 UTC ]
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In one of my earliest memories I am standing on a beach with my father and we are sculpting the shape of a woman’s body out of sand. In my mind it is winter—Avalon in the off-season—and I see us huddled in coats, wrapped in wool, bracing ourselves against the salt wind that blows in […] The post... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-10-29 08:50:18 UTC ]
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Interviews Ari Larissa Heinrich / Photo by Tara Pixley Ari Larissa Heinrich is the translator of Qiu Miaojin’s Last Words from Montmartre (New York Review Books) and Chi Ta-wei’s The Membranes (forthcoming from Columbia University Press). They... Continue reading at World Literature Today
[ World Literature Today | 2020-10-27 22:09:23 UTC ]
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This one goes out to all the writers in the Year of our Lord 2020, as we all worry that our total inability to put a sentence together could turn into a lifetime of non-production: It’s never too late. Wole Soyinka, who in 1986 became the first person from sub-Saharan Africa to win a Nobel... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-10-27 19:39:22 UTC ]
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ON JULY 2 of this year, I interviewed the author Nadia Terranova at her mother’s house in Santa Marinella, Italy, on a Zoom call from my apartment in Santa Monica, California. Back in 2015, I’d written a review of her first novel Gli anni al contrario (The Years in Reverse) and we’d met for... Continue reading at Los Angeles Review of Books
[ Los Angeles Review of Books | 2020-10-27 17:00:01 UTC ]
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In her 20s, she set up her own company, publishing everyone from James Ellroy to the Worst Witch series, and changing Britain for the better, book by book There is a revealing story Margaret Busby tells, about the first novel she published. A family friend had bumped into a former US serviceman... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2020-10-22 05:00:17 UTC ]
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No Exit Press will publish Russell Banks’ new novel Foregone as a lead fiction title in June 2021. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-10-13 01:47:40 UTC ]
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William Heinemann is publishing the first novel in almost 20 years from actor, writer and director Ethan Hawke: A Bright Ray of Darkness. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-10-05 04:15:41 UTC ]
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Today the Center for Fiction announced the shortlist for its 2020 First Novel Prize. The prize, first awarded in 2006, recognizes the best debut fiction of the year, and it comes with $15,000; each finalist receives $1,000. Previous winners include De’Shawn Charles Winslow, Tommy Orange, and... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-10-01 15:05:06 UTC ]
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Nunez’s first novel since winning the National Book Award follows a woman and her terminally ill friend. Continue reading at The Washington Post
[ The Washington Post | 2020-09-16 16:32:08 UTC ]
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Bloomsbury is to publish Patricia Lockwood's first novel No One Is Talking About This, after winning a 10-way auction. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-09-16 02:57:52 UTC ]
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The new book from the author of Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell takes place in one house, but in it, she finds infinite space. Continue reading at Slate
[ Slate | 2020-09-10 18:15:39 UTC ]
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What was the first novel? Why was it written? What need did it fill? Who wrote it? And most importantly, can you still read it today? Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2020-09-02 10:32:00 UTC ]
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In her first novel in five years, the author of “My Brilliant Friend” revisits old themes. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2020-09-01 09:00:11 UTC ]
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Interviews Get to know the participants of the upcoming 2020 Neustadt Festival in this series of short interviews. First up: David Bellos! David Bellos is a professor of French and comparative literature as well as director of the Program in Translation... Continue reading at World Literature Today
[ World Literature Today | 2020-08-25 20:30:39 UTC ]
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Picador has picked up the first novel in eight years from award-winning Irish author Keith Ridgway. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-08-24 11:52:26 UTC ]
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Makenna Goodman on leaving New York publishing behind for the farms of Vermont, and why publishing her first novel was traumatic. Continue reading at The Paris Review
[ The Paris Review | 2020-08-20 17:18:24 UTC ]
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