Why the novel matters
We read and write fiction because it asks impossible questions, and leads us boldly into the unknown.
ByNovels
Alan Hollinghurst’s English underground
Our finest living social novelist has made it his mission to disrupt the sexual and literary status quo.
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James Lee Burke’s garden of good and evil
Over 24 novels, the bruised Louisiana detectives Robicheaux and Purcel have become one of crime writing’s great partnerships.
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Samantha Harvey: “Orbital isn’t the kind of book that normally wins the Booker”
The day after winning the prize, the British author discusses choosing to write a story set in space, climate change,…
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David Peace: “There aren’t enough working-class stories around”
The great chronicler of England’s traumas on class, national identity and the importance of football novels.
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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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Rachel Cusk wins the 2024 Goldsmiths Prize for “ferociously illuminating” novel Parade
The award for inventive fiction goes to a book replete with ideas about art, literature and freedom.
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Rachel Cusk: “Women are writing more boldly about female experience”
The Goldsmiths Prize-shortlisted novelist on visual art, writing womanhood, and the value of difficulty in literature.
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Han Smith: “Fiction that takes risks shows how electric our minds can be”
The Goldsmiths Prize-shortlisted author on the power of portraits, living language, and Russia’s silenced history.
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Jonathan Buckley: “In my novel, there is no Fine Writing”
The Goldsmiths Prize-shortlisted author on voice, Muriel Spark and why he chose to discard the “writerly” register.
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Neel Mukherjee: “Isn’t all writing a form of appropriation?”
The Goldsmiths Prize-shortlisted author on reclaiming the political novel, the chimera of choice under late capitalism, and Nicki Minaj.
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Mark Bowles: “My book rages against the business-model view of the world”
The Goldsmiths Prize-shortlisted author on the value of art, making himself laugh, and finding characters in the café.
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Lara Pawson: “I like to write with rules. It pushes my mind into strange places”
The Goldsmiths Prize-shortlisted author on making art from objects, and what civil wars taught her about human nature.
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Jilly Cooper’s very English fantasies
Her novels are so absurd they are rarely analysed. Can they tell us anything about Britain and class?
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The making of Barbara Kingsolver
In Holding the Line, the author’s newly republished account of the 1983 Arizona miners’ strike, the novelist and the reporter…
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The resurrection of John le Carré
In Karla’s Choice the late spy novelist’s son Nick Harkaway has revived George Smiley – but he cannot match the…
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Alan Garner’s living tapestry
The novelist’s creative life was woven from a childhood in northern England’s mythic landscape.
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Sally Rooney: “We’re trapped in a cultural moment”
The author of Intermezzo talks to Fintan O’Toole about living with patriarchy, writing good sex, and the post-religious world.
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JG Ballard’s apocalyptic art
In Empire of the Sun, published 40 years ago, the great novelist turned his childhood experiences in a Japanese prisoner-of-war…
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Robert Harris: “Great politicians are like novelists”
The writer on Keir Starmer, Labour’s “grim” inheritance and his desire to reinvent the past.
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