INTERVIEWS
Colm Tóibín: Loss and memory
A Q&A about his latest work, including Nora Webster, Brooklyn and The Testament of Mary.
Han Kang: To be human
The author of The Vegetarian and her translator Deborah Smith discuss its themes of shame, alienation, rage, metamorphosis and desire.
Philip Teir: Question everything
The acclaimed Finnish novelist talks to Mark Reynolds about the English edition of his first novel The Winter War, and displays a healthy disrespect for Scandinavian political correctness.
Lissa Evans: Laughter in the dark
The author of Crooked Heart tells Alex Peake-Tomkinson how she landed upon the resourceful characters of her darkly comic wartime novel.
FAVOURITE STORIES
Marjorie Barnard: ‘The Persimmon Tree’ by Robyn Cadwallader
The author of The Anchoress is still haunted by Marjorie Barnard’s subtle, suggestive and groundbreaking story about past sexuality and regret.
Claire Keegan: ‘Men and Women’ by Andrew Fox
The author of Over Our Heads rates the fusion of subject matter and technique in Keegan’s story of a bullied woman’s escape from tyranny.
CONTEXTS
Laird Hunt: Deep roots, rich dirt
The author of Neverhome digs for echoes of vanished lives in the American South.
Never forget to remember
Mika Provata-Carlone is transfixed by Roger Cohen’s The Girl from Human Street, an unflinching analysis of the ethics of memory and story.
Lucy Ribchester: Making history live and breathe
The author of The Hourglass Factory wears her research on the Edwardian era lightly in her debut novel.
Rachel Carson: The marginal world
Extract from The Edge of the Sea, the third book in the classic Sea Trilogy by the Silent Spring author, now reissued to captivate a new generation of readers.
Kate Hamer: Imagining the unthinkable
The author of The Girl in the Red Coat considers the insights and influences behind her chilling debut novel.
CONTEXTS/ON FILM
Cheryl Strayed: Day 38
Read the prologue of her bestselling memoir Wild: A Journey from Lost to Found, now a major film starring Reese Witherspoon.
WRITERS’ PATHS
Emily Bullock: Double English
The author of The Longest Fight reflects on the varied influences and events that helped shape her debut novel.
INFLUENCES
Sophia Tobin: Ghosts of New York
How Edith Wharton’s The House of Mirth informed the writing of The Widow’s Confession.
SHORT STORIES
Andrew Fox: A man should be able to do things
A touching story from his debut collection Over Our Heads, about how to care for a forgetful father without regrets.
EXTRACTS
Luisa Geisler: Canoes don’t fly
Sample translation by Ana Fletcher from Luzes de emergencia se acenderao automaticamente (‘The Emergency Lights Will Turn On Automatically’).
Sophia Nikolaidou: Mistaken identity
The opening of The Scapegoat, a sweeping saga about the postwar murder of a US journalist in Thessalonika.
Emily Bullock: A drink or two
Boxing manager Jack Munday meets his match in the shape of bar girl Georgie in this enticing character study from The Longest Fight.