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"


12 Brilliant Short Stories by Asian Americans to Read For Free Online

As Asian American Pacific Islander Month comes to end, it’s important to remind ourselves that the Asian American identity is more than just race or shared affinity. Born out of political activism and the anti-war movement to protest and rally against injustice, warfare, imperialism, and... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2024-05-30 11:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this


‘I was told I was stupid’: Peep Show’s Paterson Joseph on his debut novel – and writing three operas

He starred in Peep Show, Green Wing and Wonka – and his first novel won an award. Now the star is making operas with 64 homeless people. Not bad going for someone who was written off by his teachersPaterson Joseph is, by his own admission, an unlikely opera librettist. He had turned 50 by the... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2024-05-27 04:00:13 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Jenny Erpenbeck’s ‘Kairos’ Wins the International Booker Prize

Translated by Michael Hofmann, it’s the first novel originally written in German to win the major literary award. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2024-05-21 23:13:25 UTC ]
More news stories like this


The Ultimate Updated Guide to YA Short Stories

What short stories have your favorite YA writers published? This guide will help you find them. Continue reading at Book Riot

[ Book Riot | 2024-05-21 11:30:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this


R.O. Kwon on Writing Her Way Into a Book’s Most Truthful Version

R.O. Kwon first novel, The Incendiaries, made my top ten list of books in 2018 for BBC Culture: “Kwon’s finely polished first novel is an explosive mix, tracking the evolution of a cult that turns to violence, bombing abortion clinics.” Her second novel, Exhibit, is more intimate, an artfully... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2024-05-21 08:54:03 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Alice Munro, a Literary Alchemist Who Made Great Fiction From Humble Lives

The Nobel Prize-winning author specialized in exacting short stories that were novelistic in scope, spanning decades with intimacy and precision. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2024-05-14 16:13:08 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Alice McDermott’s Writing Mantra: “Ah, Fuck Em.”

Photo by Miria-Sabina Maciągiewicz. As Emerson said to Whitman: “I greet you at the beginning of a great career, which yet must have had a long foreground somewhere, for such a start.” The same words my editor said to me when I published my first novel in—good God—1982! Although I have to... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2024-05-10 08:56:38 UTC ]
More news stories like this


African sci-fi: body hopping, artificial wombs and angry ghosts in a future Botswana

Tlotlo Tsamaase’s first novel adds to an exciting and growing body of African science fiction. Continue reading at The Conversation

[ The Conversation | 2024-05-09 14:08:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Marvel’s making an ‘interactive story’ based on the What If...? show for Apple Vision Pro

As a bona-fide hater of actual reality, virtual reality is very appealing to me. However, I’m not that into 100 hour AAA games like Asgard’s Wrath 2 or Half Life: Alyx. I’m into short interactive experiences that can’t be had anywhere else. Good news for me? The Apple Vision Pro is getting a... Continue reading at Engadget

[ Engadget | 2024-05-08 18:39:58 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Book Review: ‘Early Sobrieties,’ by Michael Deagler

Michael Deagler’s first novel follows a young man who is piecing his life back together and trying very hard not to drink. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2024-05-06 09:00:26 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Jerome Rothenberg, Who Expanded the Sphere of Poetry, Dies at 92

His anthology “Technicians of the Sacred” included a range of non-Western work and was beloved by, among others, rock stars like Jim Morrison and Nick Cave. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2024-05-05 19:47:27 UTC ]
More news stories like this


'Harry Potter' set at an HBCU? LaDarrion Williams wrote the book he always wanted to read

'Blood at the Root,' LaDarrion Williams' first novel in a three-book deal — a series that centers on a Black boy in a YA fantasy saga — is the kind of fiction he wishes existed when he was a kid. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2024-05-03 10:00:51 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Can We Truly Be Free of Our Past? A Conversation with Wendy Chen, by Xixuan Collins

Can We Truly Be Free of Our Past? A Conversation with Wendy Chen, by Xixuan Collins Interviews [email protected] Mon, 04/29/2024 - 15:10 An epic family saga that spans over one hundred years and two countries, Wendy Chen’s powerful, lyrical debut,... Continue reading at World Literature Today

[ World Literature Today | 2024-04-29 20:10:46 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Oakland’s Poet Laureate Receives Rainin Arts Fellowship, Plans Anthology with New Indie Press

Ayodele "WordSlanger" Nzinga, honored for her theater innovation, is co-editing a bilingual anthology with Oso Perezoso Press, launched by indie publisher J.K. Fowler. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-04-24 04:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this


7 Questions for Kim Hye-jin, by Michelle Johnson

7 Questions for Kim Hye-jin, by Michelle Johnson Interviews [email protected] Mon, 04/22/2024 - 09:49 Photo © Lee HaesooOn March 20, Restless Books published Kim Hye-jin’s Counsel Culture, a novel about a woman’s scapegoating and her path to... Continue reading at World Literature Today

[ World Literature Today | 2024-04-22 14:49:51 UTC ]
More news stories like this


“The Stone Home,” My Second Novel, Was Crafted From Shocking Historical Truths

In January 2016, I was an unpublished writer working on my first novel when I learned of an artist residency on a tiny island off the west coast of South Korea. Excited, I daydreamed of finishing my manuscript in my motherland, visiting family, and of course, eating an abundance of delicious... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2024-04-18 11:05:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this


A Summary and Analysis of John Cheever’s ‘The Worm in the Apple’

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) The short stories of John Cheever (1912-82) are among the greatest American short stories of the twentieth century. His Collected Stories runs to 900 pages and contains tales which are by turns realist, borderline magic-realist, and downright... Continue reading at Interesting Literature

[ Interesting Literature | 2024-04-17 14:00:45 UTC ]
More news stories like this


The Spin | Behind the scenes at Wisden: 161 years old and still going strong

The Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack remains a bestseller and headline-grabber, because it acts as the conscience of cricketThe commission came by post, which was unusual even in 1994. We don’t pay very well, it said, but we can offer you “a sliver of immortality”. Only the editor of Wisden could... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2024-04-17 09:53:59 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Twisty-Turny Tales That Blur the Line Between Fantasy and Reality in Black Life

In WEIRD BLACK GIRLS, Elwin Cotman delivers seven short stories that go long on the absurdity and anxiety of modern Black life. Continue reading at Book Riot

[ Book Riot | 2024-04-16 13:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this


7 Short Story Collections Set in Nigeria

I have always loved the versatility of the short story, how it can so easily take on the forms of other things. There are playlist short stories, recipe short stories, diary and epistolary-style short stories. There are flash fiction stories, short short stories, and long short stories that... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2024-04-15 11:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this