A novel about connection

Imagine the place of  future technology in American, as the Pulitzer Prize winning author of Trust turns to the future with an extraordinary novel that examines the palce of technology in the American imagination. Centuries from now, at the dawn of a historical epoch filled with both uncertainty and promise, an orphan is adrift in a city on the brink of a great transformation. The state has been dismantled, and humans are reinventing social bonds and learning new ways to co-exit with nature. Following a childhood defined loss, survival and found family, the orphan grows up to become a “pincher,” someone … Continue reading A novel about connection

Disarmingly tender, slyly funny world of surrogacy

Fallow is a fictional novel of a debt-laden young woman who had  seven pregnancies in 10 years, after signing up to be the world’s first in-house professional surrogate for a corporate behemoth, then finds herself caught in a social experiment of another kind. Natalie knows one truth, there is no such thing as a good job. As the clock ticks away at the workplace harassment call centre, she tries to ignore the increasing pain in her jaw. She has no dental insurance. She has no skills or ambitions. She has student loans. And, minute by minute, she hears the many ways … Continue reading Disarmingly tender, slyly funny world of surrogacy

Has smartphones killed the habit of reading books?

James Marriott (33),  a columnist at The Times, is worried that people are not reading as literature graduates have trouble in concentrating on long texts, amid constant digital distraction, which has created a “hostile environment” for learning. The golden chain of knowledge linking reader to reader through history is breaking. The screen has replaced the page. Our free time  has been colonised by addictive, infantilising slop. A culture of distraction is replacing a culture of reasoned debate. As reading declines, thought becomes shallower and culture becomes simpler. Public life is becoming more emotional, more tribal and more irrational. We are entering a … Continue reading Has smartphones killed the habit of reading books?

101 Princesses

Imagine what New York-based, British writer Jon Ronson did when he received a series of disquieting texts after his 24-year-old son Joel and his friends had been lured to a mysterious castle in the  rural Connecticut (forests of New England) under false pretences late one evening. Ronson Sr. off on an extraordinary adventure into a world of unmoored men on a desperate search for purpose, whatever the cost. Why did the wealthy scion of a gilded age tycoon Jon’s son to his castle on the pretext of a party, when the reality was something else entirely? Could Jon uncover what was … Continue reading 101 Princesses

Diana: My Sister….

In Swan Song: Diana, My Sister, a memoir by Charles Spencer, 9th Earl Spencer  about his sister Lady Diana Spencer. Diana became the Princess of Wales when she married Charles III, then heir to the British throne. The book published by Michael Joseph an imprint of Penguin Random House, and released simultaneously in the United States and Canada ahead of the 30th death anniversary of Diana in August 2027 and translated into 12 languages. The memoir chronicles their childhood including their upbringing at the Spencer family estate, their parent’s divorce. It examines Diana’s marriage to Charles, her rise to global prominence, her humanitarian … Continue reading Diana: My Sister….

Aimless rituals and shortlived romances

Éric Rohmer, the French New Wave’s most prolific and beloved filmmaker’s first and only novel Elisabeth featuring witty banter, lust, ennui and an undercurrent of violence underlie a seemingly paradisiacal summer on the eve of World War II. Fifteen years before completing his first feature film- and ten before beginning a transformative editorial stint at Cahiers du cinema that would usher the journal, and French cinema, into a new era – the man who would become known worldwide as Éric Rohmer published a single novel. Released byÉditions Galimard alongside the early works of Claude Simon and Marguérite Duras, Élisabeth was … Continue reading Aimless rituals and shortlived romances

Real value of life might lie not in beauty but in ugliness

Acclaimed author of Outline trilogy (an irresistible novel of fame, power, beauty, and truth- Rachel Cusk’s new novel, is about an unnamed but apparently female author undertakes to write a biographical portrait of her friend, a world  famous actress referred to as M. The film star M is one of the most recognizable faces of our time, and her image is everywhere, which has been like that since she was a child. With such fame, her life has the appearance of freedom: people are instantly obliging, spaces are altered to accommodate her, time can be rearranged. M may live in the … Continue reading Real value of life might lie not in beauty but in ugliness

Hope, Anger and Exhaustion – lack of despair causes despair

Two friends meet in an art gallery after decades of silence. The idealism that once bound them together fissured and fractured under the weight of collective and personal griefs. Through their memories of youthful certainty, the antagonism of their conversation and the embers of their enduring kinship, they navigate the wreckage of our world today- the hope, the anger the exhaustion.Jamaican-American poet and playwright Claudia Rankine best known for “Citizen” (2014), her prize-winning work of prose poetry about black experience in the US, which explored microaggressions, police violence and Serena William’s treatment by tennis officials and exposed the depth of … Continue reading Hope, Anger and Exhaustion – lack of despair causes despair

Who can survive?

Scottish Irvine Welsh, by now quite American, after 17 years since the Trainspotting author one-time provocateur-in-chief of the British literary scene first moved stateside to Chicago, home city of his second wife, and since their divorce he has kept a house in Miami. In what ought to be constitutional impossibility, there are times when Donald Trump, recumbent in Mar-a-Lago, is just 70-miles from the man who once wrote that “Whin yir oan Junk, aw ye worry aboot is scorin”. A divided Las Vegas family is forced to confront the past and reckon with a dangerous future, although Trump is seldom … Continue reading Who can survive?

Survival amid ultimate brutality…

Paul Yoon’s Etna is set in a fictional country in the present day, this is story told through the eyes of an ex-military dog, Etna. Etna after surviving years of a devastating war,  decides one night to leave the men he has fought alongside for years and returns home- to the place where he has taken from when he was young, in the thin but persistent hope that if a home exists for him, it might be there. This exhilarating odyssey told through the eyes of a war dog in his own battle-weary, gritty voice, as he traverses across ruined landscapes … Continue reading Survival amid ultimate brutality…