“I have always liked men of strong contrasts”, a friend told me once under the frescoed ceiling of a Renaissance villa outside Rome. The place was hosting a contemporary art fair and we were...
With the rise of adult colouring books — colouring books designed for adults, not the other kind of ‘adult’ — has come the rise of animated comedies also targeted at the adult market (think...
2015 has been an interesting and sometimes controversial year in the world of literature in English. (I am not equipped to comment on the rich and varied non-English-language literary scene, so this...
Geraldine Brooks’ latest novel, an account of the life of King David told by his prophet, Nathan (Natan), takes its title from Leonard Cohen’s beloved and much-covered song, Hallelujah. Although...
“In Praise of Joanne Rowling’s Hermione Granger series” was all over my social-media @-replies a few weeks ago. Again. This has happened often, in the four years since I wrote the piece....
The 2015 Man Booker Prize was announced on Tuesday, with the winner being Jamaican author Marlon James for his novel A Brief History of Seven Killings. James is the first Jamaican writer to win the...
Graphic Journalism is emerging as one of the most compelling ways to talk about an urgent issue: migration. From Persepolis to Vietnamerica, authors are creating stories where the political history...
(For other Man Booker shortlist reviews, see: A Spool of Blue Thread, The Fishermen, and The Year of the Runaways). Satin Island is Tom McCarthy’s second grab at the Man Booker ring – his book C...
The shortlist for the Man Booker Prize was announced on Tuesday. The six titles that made the cut are: Satin Island (Tom McCarthy) A Spool of Blue Thread (Anne Tyler) The Fishermen (Chigozie Obioma)...
Chigozie Obioma’s The Fishermen is the second of the three debut novels on this year’s Man Booker longlist, alongside The Chimes and Did You Ever Have a Family. In very different ways to The...
