After editing The Luminaries, UK writer Max Porter released his own astronomically good book, Grief Is the Thing With Feathers. His new novel Lanny is short and strange; every page squishes with imagery, a rich compost of words. It begins: Dead Papa Toothwort wakes from his standing nap an acre wide and scrapes off dream dregs … Read more
Brannavan Gnanalingam reviews the long-awaited – and outstanding – novel by Marlon James, who won the Man Booker prize four years ago with A Brief History of Seven Killings. It was some canny marketing to release a book self-described as the “African Game of Thrones” just before the final season on TV of the actual Game of … Read more
The 2019 Man Booker prize is announced next week. Brannavan Gnanalingam reviews two of the shortlisted novels, Washington Black by Esi Edugyan and The Mars Room by Rachel Kushner. Previously in Man Booker Prize Fight Week: Philip Matthews on Robin Robertson and Richard Powers This year’s Bookers shortlist contained a few surprises – including the … Read more
The 2018 Man Booker prize is announced next week. Philip Matthews reviews two of the shortlisted novels, The Long Take by Robin Robertson and The Overstory by Richard Powers. I can’t promise that everyone would necessarily enjoy Robin Robertson’s The Long Take, but you will remain haunted by it. You may have heard it described as the … Read more
Louisa, Kiran and Jenna are back with all the latest book news, reviews and gossip. This month – authors are being ferried all over New Zealand to speak to you, the reader; the PANZ Book Design Awards are upon us; and the Man Booker Prize Longlist has just been announced. We also give you some … Read more
Han Kang won the international Booker Prize for her depressing novel The Vegetarian. Her follow-up, The White Book, is even bleaker, writes Wyoming Paul. A 22-year-old woman has given birth to a premature baby girl, alone in her house in a remote area, with no way to call either her husband or a doctor. During the birth she … Read more
The year’s biggest literary prize – the Man Booker award – is announced on Wednesday morning, October 18 (NZ time). All week this week we review the six shortlisted titles. Today: Louise O’Brien on Ali Smith’s Autumn, and Exit West by Mohsin Hamid. Unsurprisingly, at least two of the books which made it to the Booker … Read more
The year’s biggest literary prize, the Man Booker award, is announced on Wednesday morning, October 18 (NZ time). All week this week we review the six shortlisted titles. Today: Linda Burgess reviews Fiona Mozley’s Elmet, and History of Wolves by Emily Fridlund. At 29, Fiona Mozley is the youngest writer on the Man Booker Prize shortlist. … Read more
The year’s biggest literary prize – the Man Booker award – is announced on Wednesday morning, October 18 (NZ time). All week this week we review the six shortlisted titles. Today: Philip Matthews on Paul Auster’s 4 3 2 1, and the favourite to win, Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders. What did Paul Auster … Read more
Wyoming Paul reviews The Vegetarian, the slim, erotic novel which has become the literary sensation of 2016 after it won this year’s Man Booker international prize for fiction. After a violent and disturbing nightmare, an ordinary Korean woman decides to stop eating meat. She empties the kitchen of fish, eggs, pork, and for the first … Read more
Now and again, not often, a novel and a novelist comes along and knocks everyone on their ass. It’s happening with Elena Ferrante and it’s happening with Hanya Yanagihara, the New York writer whose novel A Little Life has mesmerized readers with its story telling and its ability to harrow. It’s shortlisted for the Man … Read more
A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James The Year of the Runaways by Sunjeev Sahota There’s this, taken from Cameron Crowe’s story in Rolling Stone, January 13, 1977: Bob Marley, one of the world’s best-known reggae performers, and three other persons were shot December 3rd when seven gunmen burst onto the grounds of … Read more