Why Rachel Cusk won the 2024 Goldsmiths Prize for fiction
Her novel Parade, slim but complex, is the latest product of a career dedicated to breaking new formal ground.
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Lola Seaton
Lola Seaton is an associate editor at New Left Review and a contributing writer at the New Statesman.
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The paradoxical moods of Joni Mitchell’s Court and Spark
Released 50 years ago, the singer’s commercial breakthrough is a masterwork of ambivalence.
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In search of the meaning of sport
A new book shows how sport has shaped British history and society – but cannot explain why it matters…
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Karl Ove Knausgaard’s thought experiment
The Norwegian novelist doesn’t just want to show his characters’ inner lives, he wants us to take leave of…
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Jon Fosse and the art of tedium
The Norwegian author’s masterwork Septology finds a mysterious beauty in repetition.
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Zadie Smith: the reluctant historical novelist
The author’s first period piece, The Fraud, is curiously absent of her usual strengths. Was her heart really in…
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Making a murderer
Mark O’Connell’s portrait of a notorious Irish killer becomes a study of the desire to turn reality into fiction.
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Who is criticism for?
Seth Rogen’s protest against bad reviews misunderstands the role of the critic in the fight against mediocrity.
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Adam Gopnik’s pursuit of the perfect sentence
The New Yorker journalist’s latest book, The Real Work, sheds light on a career spent obsessively attempting to master…
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