What we're reading August 2019

Lowborn by Kerry HudsonKerry Hudson is best known for her award-winning fiction. Her first book, Tony Hogan Bought Me An Ice-cream Float Before He Stole My Ma, won the Scottish First Book Award and earned her a place on the Granta Best of Young British Novelists list. Her latest book, Lowborn, is a non-fiction account of poverty in the UK today, told from a personal perspective. She recounts a journey across the UK, visiting the seven places she lived as a child. She describes memories of time in care as a looked after child, then with her young and struggling mother, and the all-encompassing poverty which pervaded her childhood, which is still sadly ever visible in the places she visits. Hudson is a masterful storyteller, and this is a brave and honest book that has much to say about the times and society we live in.Sinead Russel, Director LiteratureHend and the Soldiers by Badriah alBeshr, translated from the Arabic by Sanna Dhahir.This beautiful and troubling novel by Saudi novelist and journalist Badriah al Beshr charts a young woman’s childhood and early adulthood, from village life, social ascent during the economic boom, early marriage and divorce. While al Beshr rejects the tag of ‘feminist’ novelist, the picaresque story she weaves lucidly depicts the way gender roles are enforced with martial rigidity by the titular ‘soldiers’ - husband, brothers, extended family, neighbours, and local gossips, who stand guard at the gates of Hend’s world, armed with notions of... Continue reading at 'British Council global'

[ British Council global | 2019-08-30 08:51:45 UTC ]

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At 48, I should be inspired by Gwyneth Paltrow and her abs. But they make me want to throw things | Emma Beddington

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Three debut novels compete among Women’s prize for fiction shortlist

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Why so much hype? Being on Granta’s best young novelists list has its drawbacks | Sarah Hall

In 2013, I was one of the chosen 20. Today, I still question the accolades and gimmickry around making the gradeIn 2013, the fourth Granta Best of Young British Novelists (BYBN) list was published, and I was among the 20 writers selected. I was 39 and had published four novels and received... Continue reading at The Guardian

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Granta 163: Best of Young British Novelists 5 review – more solipsism than state of the nation

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Granta’s Best of Young British Novelists – meet the class of 23

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Are these the most influential novelists of 2023?

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Here is the Granta 2023 Best of British Novelists list.

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Granta reveals its pick of future star British novelists

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On Writing ‘Blind Bitter Happiness’

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Hay Festival 2023

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On Literary Celebrity

Caryl Phillips on being chosen as a Best of Young British Novelists in 1993 and the nascent culture of literary celebrity. The post On Literary Celebrity appeared first on Granta. Continue reading at Granta

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On Judging Granta’s Best of Young British Novelists

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On the Anxieties of Translation

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Catherine Lacey: ‘That constant nervous Twitter energy repels me’

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Granta’s Best of Young British Novelists

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NYPL Announces 2023 Finalists for Bernstein Excellence in Journalism Award

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Bank Street Launches Margaret Wise Brown Board Book Award

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In Praise of the Campus Novel: Daisy Alpert Florin on Fiction and Self-Discovery

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