Issue 44 / May 2012
August Update: On board with AL Kennedy, a glamorous week with Moni Mohsin, Marika Cobbold reads and Hari Kunzru writes
August is a languid month as hazy weather turns the fast-paced everyday into something pleasurably slower, with more time than usual to read and feast.
If you're not heading off for your own city break, beach holiday or country escape, there's plenty to distract you from euphoric texts and twitters from loved ones at play. The Booker long-list offers 13 titles to lose yourself in, from publishers big and small. Eight men, seven indies, five women, four debut novels, three Canadians: where to start? Perhaps it's time to catch up with The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt, interviewed here a few issues ago.
School may be out for summer, but classtime memories are somehow always with us. Dave Eggers recently reminisced about that singular teacher who helped to shape and direct us at some point in our early learning years.
An inspirational teacher is at the heart of You Deserve Nothing, the debut novel by Alexander Maksik. Published in the US by Tonga Books, the new imprint run by Alice Sebold, Maksik is already causing quite a stir. His protagonist, unlike Eggers' mentor, drifts towards an immoral existence. Keep an eye on our blog in the coming week for more on Tonga and Maksik.
Remember writing essays on Lord of the Flies in English class? It's the hundredth anniversary of William Golding's birth this year, and to mark the occasion today sees the publication of two Golding classics with specially commissioned introductions by Stephen King and Peter Carey. Faber & Faber are planning several events and activities around the centenary. Details here.
For more summer reading ideas, we have a bumper issue this month featuring, among others, AL Kennedy, Hari Kunzru, Marika Cobbold, Alice LaPlante and Moni Mohsin.
Happy reading, and see you in September.
Farhana Gani, 4th August 2011
Thursday, 4 August, 2011
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