AS Byatt’s hard truths
The novelist, who died last week aged 87, clung fast to realism during a time of faddish post-structuralists.
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Immerse yourself in the captivating world of literature with our collection of articles, offering literary analysis, book recommendations, author spotlights, and thought-provoking discussions that celebrate the written word.
Clemens Meyer’s lessons from history
The author on growing up in the GDR, the rise of the far-right and Germany’s “responsibility” for the conflict in…
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The calm of the sleeper train
Also this week: Samuel Beckett’s advice, and the mysteries of time and loss.
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The secrets of Shakespeare’s “stupid”, “grotesque” portrait
The infamous “pudding-faced” Droeshout portrait is widely agreed to be hideous and embarrassing. Is there more to it than meets…
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Why we chose Benjamin Myers’s Cuddy as the Goldsmiths Prize winner
The time-travelling story about faith, nationhood and the north upends preconceptions of the “historical novel”.
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Benjamin Myers wins the 2023 Goldsmiths Prize for “virtuosic” novel Cuddy
The award for “mould-breaking” fiction goes to a millennia-spanning epic about St Cuthbert of Lindisfarne.
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Amy Arnold: “We’re unaccustomed to being pushed up against the inner life of another person”
The author of the Goldsmiths Prize-shortlisted Lori & Joe on walking, suspense and capturing consciousness in prose.
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Adam Thirlwell: “Everyone has become a kind of manic everyday literary critic”
The Goldsmiths-shortlisted author on aliens, revolutionary France and our era of misinformation.
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How John le Carré infiltrated Oxford
When the author was a spy the university was his battlefield.
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H Gareth Gavin: “I’m more interested in stubbornness than in hope”
The Goldsmiths-shortlisted author of Never Was on transness as “a tussle with history”.
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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 our…
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Kate Briggs: “I took a philosophical vocabulary and offered it to a baby”
The author of the Goldsmiths Prize-shortlisted The Long Form on “patchwork” novels, and why childcare is a political act.
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The darkness of the secret world: Mick Herron and John Gray in conversation
The bestselling author of the Slough House series and the philosopher discuss spy thrillers, the allure of the Cold War…
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Benjamin Myers: “Historical fiction is not all tabards and turnips”
The author of the Goldsmiths Prize-shortlisted Cuddy on being a heathen, and why he wants to see a ghost.
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Andrew Wylie’s rules for life
America’s most feared literary agent on his friend Salman Rushdie, what Sally Rooney taught him, and how he has thrived…
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Richard Milward: “I use humour as a coping mechanism”
Polari is the “perfect slang for a freewheeling anarchist”, says the author of the Goldsmiths-shortlisted Man-Eating Typewriter.
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Americans don’t belong in Europe
Henry James showed how the New World is incapable of understanding the Old World.
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The 10 best modern poems
Poets including Michael Rosen, Kathleen Jamie, Andrew Motion and Raymond Antrobus select their favourite poems of the 21st century.
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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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The 2023 Goldsmiths Prize shortlist celebrates northern fiction
The award for “fiction at its most novel” is dominated this year by authors from and writing about the north…
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