What We're Reading - Lockdown Bank Holiday Edition

Whether delving into chunky historical narratives or listening to short story podcasts, we’ve all been approaching reading differently during lockdown. Our reading habits can take us back in time, allow us to examine our present, or give us hope for the future. In time for the May bank holiday weekend, the Literature team shares what they’ve been reading lately.  You People by Nikita LalwaniNikita Lalwani's You People follows Nia, a 19-year-old British-Indian girl, and Shan, a Tamil refugee, who work at a London pizzeria and are both in thrall – in different ways – to the restaurant's enigmatic manager Tuli. Initially, Nia and Shan don't have much in common, and their differing views of Tuli reflect this. Nia wants to escape her troubled family, while Shan longs to bring his wife and child to the UK; Nia, having been sent down from Oxford, wants to escape the bonds of the establishment, while Shan longs for Britain's elite to grant him indefinite leave to remain. To Nia, Tuli is mercurial and charming, glimpsed offering deals and generous loans; from Shan's perspective, he's to be courted and obeyed, able to use his influence and wealth to bring Shan's family to safety.Things change when Nia voluntarily enters a world that Shan can’t escape, and You People uses a gripping, thriller-like structure to reflect this. But even as the jaws of the trap close around them, and the protagonists rely on quick thinking and deduction to survive, the novel creates a larger tension from... Continue reading at 'British Council global'

[ British Council global | 2020-05-07 13:58:54 UTC ]

Other news stories related to: "What We're Reading - Lockdown Bank Holiday Edition"


Reading Short Stories is Helping Me Fall in Love With Reading Again

Inspired by another Rioter's bookish rituals, I'm trying my own. I wake up earlier than usual to enjoy a slow morning reading short stories. Continue reading at Book Riot

[ Book Riot | 2021-11-18 11:36:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Witch + Spy = Essayist: The Millions Interviews Randon Billings Noble

Randon Billings Noble discusses her path to essay writing, current reading life, the anthology editing process, and what's next in her career. The post Witch + Spy = Essayist: The Millions Interviews Randon Billings Noble appeared first on The Millions. Continue reading at The Millions

[ The Millions | 2021-11-17 11:00:36 UTC ]
More news stories like this


A Deep Bow to Mombasa (and Sea Monsters): A Conversation with Khadija Abdalla Bajaber, by Anderson Tepper

Interviews Khadija Abdalla Bajaber’s astonishing debut novel, The House of Rust, winner of the inaugural Graywolf Press Africa Prize, arrived in October as if on a magical wave, imbued with an assortment of creatures—human and animal, real and... Continue reading at World Literature Today

[ World Literature Today | 2021-11-15 21:42:08 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Inheriting the Legacy of Japanese Imperialism

Take a kaleidoscope, peer inside its lens and turn the dial: the jeweled-mosaic pattern within deforms and reforms anew. Asako Serizawa mirrored her debut short story collection Inheritors after this complex design. Out of chronological sequence, the thirteen short stories locate twelve related... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2021-11-11 12:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this


12 Free Short Stories by Your Favorite Authors

These free short stories by your favorite authors will entice and enchant you with bookkeeping aliens, ant writing, and sentient drones. Continue reading at Book Riot

[ Book Riot | 2021-11-10 11:34:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this


“still and yet and for all times”: A First Nations Anthology That Liberates Narratives of Indigenous Identity, by Dan Disney

Book Reviews Mitchell River National Park, Victoria, Australia / Photo by Zac Porter / Unsplash While the landmark anthology Guwayu – For All Times: A Collection of First Nations Poems (Magabala Books, 2020), edited by Jeanine Leane, refuses the... Continue reading at World Literature Today

[ World Literature Today | 2021-11-09 21:58:53 UTC ]
More news stories like this


The Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka Discusses His First Novel in Nearly Fifty Years

The Nigerian writer explains the origins of his latest book’s title, why novels are harder to write than plays, and the masochistic pull of political activism. Continue reading at New Yorker

[ New Yorker | 2021-11-02 22:37:29 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Staunch Prize shortlists for flash fiction and short stories revealed

The 2021 shortlists have been revealed for the Staunch Prize’s unpublished flash fiction and short stories without violence to women, while the original book prize is on hold until 2022. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2021-11-01 12:22:21 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Boubacar Boris Diop Wins Prestigious 2022 Neustadt International Prize for Literature

News and Events (c) Rama, Cc-by-sa-2.0-fr NORMAN, OKLA. – World Literature Today, the University of Oklahoma’s award-winning magazine of international literature and culture, announced late Tuesday evening that Boubacar Boris Diop is the 27th... Continue reading at World Literature Today

[ World Literature Today | 2021-10-26 21:56:54 UTC ]
More news stories like this


The last laugh: is the television sitcom really dead?

From Friends to The Thick Of It, the TV sitcom has evolved – but it’s no longer in rude health. Enter offbeat shows like Stath Lets Flats, bringing joy and potential redemptionThe sitcom has a long history of being dead. According to the former NBC president of entertainment, Warren Littlefield,... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2021-10-26 14:35:04 UTC ]
More news stories like this


How Agnes Chu and Helen Estabrook are breaking Condé Nast Entertainment further into Hollywood

Under new leadership experienced in TV and film, Condé Nast’s entertainment arm is working more closely with its publications to develop articles and short stories into shows and movies. The post How Agnes Chu and Helen Estabrook are breaking Condé Nast Entertainment further into Hollywood... Continue reading at Digiday

[ Digiday | 2021-10-26 04:01:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Watching a Magazine, Reading a Movie: On Wes Anderson’s The French Dispatch

Wes Anderson’s The French Dispatch is probably what you’d call an anthology film—which is to say it’s a compendium of several mini-films, unrelated topically but all connected somehow—but it also might not even be what you’d call a film at all. I’m not sure. We’ll think on this together in a... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2021-10-22 15:57:31 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Review: ‘The Street,’ by Ann Petry

This classic story of a single mother’s struggle against poverty, published in 1946, would become the first novel by a Black woman to sell a million copies. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2021-10-22 04:28:52 UTC ]
More news stories like this


SelfMadeHero releases anthology by emerging creators of colour

SelfMadeHero is releasing Catalyst, the result of its 2021 Graphic Anthology Programme, which was designed to develop, publish and promote emerging creators of colour from across the UK. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2021-10-21 22:49:56 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Interview: Isabel Allende

The Chilean novelist was living in exile when her first novel was published in 1985. “In a way, I feel that I am working for my country, even if I don’t live there,” she told us. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2021-10-21 15:31:43 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Review: ‘Wolf Hall,’ by Hilary Mantel

This fictional portrait of Henry VIII’s scheming aide Thomas Cromwell — the first volume in a trilogy — won the Man Booker Prize in 2009. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2021-10-21 15:24:11 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Review: ‘The Age of Innocence,’ by Edith Wharton

This tale of Gilded Age New York City became, in 1921, the first novel by a woman to win the Pulitzer Prize. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2021-10-21 14:55:14 UTC ]
More news stories like this


10 of the Best Science-Fiction Short Stories Everyone Should Read

What are the best places to begin exploring the wonderful world of science fiction? Some of the classic novels of the genre, from Frank Herbert’s Dune to Asimov’s Foundation series (which eventually stretched to seven volumes), might appear daunting because of their sheer size and scope. Below,... Continue reading at Interesting Literature

[ Interesting Literature | 2021-10-20 14:00:25 UTC ]
More news stories like this


MacLehose Press signs contemporary fiction anthology by Afghan women

Quercus imprint MacLehose Press has acquired My Pen is the Wing of a Bird: New Fiction by Afghan Women, an anthology of contemporary women's short stories with an introduction by BBC chief international correspondent Lyse Doucet. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2021-10-19 02:58:08 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Sequoia Nagamatsu | 'Speculative fiction can open a dialogue'

Sequoia Nagamatsu’s bold first novel imagines how future humans might grapple with the fallout from climate change Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2021-10-15 04:56:32 UTC ]
More news stories like this