Laurent Binet: ‘Most French writers are lazy’
The award-winning author of HhhH on his literary Nazi hunt, having his debut novel hailed as a masterpiece by Bret Easton Ellis, and why he wants change at the Elysée PalaceA thrilling and formally daring novel about the plan to assassinate the high-r...
The talking penguin’s guide to climate change
Darryl Cunningham is using the graphic novel format to address the most serious issues in science and to fight disinformation"The argument for human-driven climate change is as follows…" says the talking penguin to the man in the red jacket in the mi...
Swamplandia! by Karen Russell – review
Karen Russell's debut novel is a high-wire act with a few false stepsIn a family-run amusement park in the Everglades, a woman in a green bathing suit stands on a diving board high above a manmade lake. Below her in the murky water are dozens of alliga...
The Last Interview and Other Conversations by Kurt Vonnegut, edited by Tom McCartan – review
A collection of interviews with Kurt Vonnegut displays his dark wit to the fullThe last interview Kurt Vonnegut gave before his death in 2007 was uncharacteristically brief for a man never short of words. Talking to the Chicago magazine In These Times,...
Part of the job is frightening yourself’
The American author discusses the inspiration behind his new novel about a man who discovers Anne Frank living in his atticIn your new novel, Hope: A Tragedy, the main character buys a house in the country and discovers an elderly, foul‑mouthed Anne ...
Zona by Geoff Dyer
Geoff Dyer's irreverent commentary on one of cinema's most 'difficult' offerings is a free-wheeling delightThe films of Andrei Tarkovsky, and in particular his 1979 classic Stalker, have a reputation for being among the most difficult in cinema. Diffic...
Colson Whitehead: ‘Zombies are a good vehicle for my misanthropy’
The acclaimed US writer talks about his latest book, Zone One, and why he likes to change style and subject matter with each new novelYou're a recipient of the MacArthur Fellowship "genius award", you've been nominated for a Pulitzer prize and your wor...
Punk and the Pulitzer
The author of A Visit from the Goon Squad talks winning awards, writing the future and why she would have gone on the road with the WhoYou won a Pulitzer prize in April for your novel A Visit from the Goon Squad. Has life changed much since you won?The...
The Tyranny of Choice by Renata Salecl – review
Do you really want to help yourself? Well, avoid self-help books, says the author of this powerful attack on consumer societySeveral years ago, an American magazine editor named Jennifer Niesslein decided to iron out all the imperfections in her life. ...
How does a poet ensure his work lives for ever?
Christian Bök is using a 'chemical alphabet' to translate a short verse into a sequence of extremophile DNAMany artists seek to attain immortality through their art, but few would expect their work to outlast the human race and live on for billions of...
The Coincidence Engine by Sam Leith
A debut novel about secret agents investigating wild coincidences is too goofy even for its own subject matterFrom The X-Files to The Men Who Stare at Goats, the weird fringe of America's intelligence agencies – those top-secret departments that keep...
Meet the rising stars of Any Human Heart
Freddie Fox, Lydia Wilson, Emerald Fennell, Charity Wakefield and Hugh Skinner – five of the younger actors appearing in the TV drama – already boast impressive dramatic recordsFREDDIE FOX Son of actors Edward Fox and Joanna David. Plays Logan's fr...
