
London Review Bookshop Podcast
701 episodes — Page 8 of 15

Citizens of Everywhere: Shami Chakrabarti, Tom McCarthy, Eloise Todd and Lauren Elkin
Are we English, British, European, citizens of the planet Earth or none of the above? The ‘Citizens of Everywhere’ project invites writers, artists and journalists to respond to the seismic shifts in European and American politics, and their implications for the future, in ways that are creative, surprising, and, most importantly of all, useful. Baroness Shami Chakrabarti, Labour peer and former director of Liberty, novelist Tom McCarthy and campaigner Eloise Todd were at the shop to debate the future of citizenship in Britain, Europe and beyond. Lauren Elkin, author of Flaneuse and co -director of the Centre for New and International Writing at the University of Liverpool, was in the chair. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Lost Voices: Fred D'Aguiar, David Olusoga, Catherine Fletcher and Nandini Das
The fleeting appearance of black faces in Tudor paintings marks the silent presence of a community's untold story. Who were the black men and women who lived, loved, and died in Renaissance Britain? How did they arrive? And how can we recover their voices when all we have is a glimpse in a portrait here, or church and court record there? At this event the writer Fred D'Aguiar and historians David Olusoga and Catherine Fletcher joined Nandini Das, director of TIDE, to explore the challenge of using fiction to recover those lost voices in history. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Nancy Fraser and Ann Pettifor: 'Capitalism: A Conversation in Critical Theory'
In Capitalism: A Conversation in Critical Theory (Polity) Nancy Fraser and Rahel Jaeggi engage in a critical dialogue that seeks to expand our understanding of capitalism, revealing it to be not merely a system of economic relations, but rather a form of institutionalised social order, and one that continually reinvents itself through crisis. Nancy Fraser, Professor of Political & Social Science at the New School for Social Research, was in conversation about capitalism and its discontents with Ann Pettifor, Director of Prime (Policy Research in Macroeconomics), Fellow of the New Economics Foundation and author of The Production of Money (Verso). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Danny Dorling, Richard Wilkinson and Rupa Huq: ‘A Better Politics’
Danny Dorling, Professor of Geography at the University of Oxford and, according to Simon Jenkins in the Guardian, 'the geographer royal by appointment to the left', returned to the Bookshop to talk about his new book A Better Politics: How Government Can Make Us Happier (London Publishing Partnership). Dorling's book looks at the evidence for a successful politics that would promote happiness and health and suggests policies that take account of this evidence. Dorling was in conversation with Rupa Huq, Labour MP for Ealing Central and Acton, and Richard Wilkinson, co-author of The Spirit Level. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Laleh Khalili and Rafeef Ziadah: ‘Sinews of War and Trade’
Laleh Khalili and Rafeef Ziadah on shipping and capitalism in the Arabian peninsula. You can order the book discussed in this episode here: lrb.me/order Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Tim Dee, Marina Warner and Ken Worpole: Ground Work
Radio producer and naturalist Tim Dee has curated in Ground Work (Cape) an essential collection of autobiographical essays from distinguished writers, all of which explore, in diverse ways, the complex and increasingly vexed relationship between the human and natural. Tim Dee was in conversation with two of the book's contributors, Marina Warner and Ken Worpole. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Nikita Lalwani and Mary Mount: ‘You People’
Nikita Lalwani’s latest novel You People (Viking) centres on a London pizzeria where the chefs are Sri Lankan and many of the kitchen staff are illegal immigrants. Through a diverse set of characters Lalwani draws a vivid portrait of contemporary British life as it really is lived. Lalwani was in conversation with her editor Mary Mount. ‘Enthralling as a thriller, yet also a beautiful human drama, and a serious enquiry into the possibility of goodness.’ - Tessa Hadley Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Adam Mars-Jones and Richard Scott: ‘Box Hill’
EAdam Mars-Jones talks about his newly-published novel, ‘Box Hill’ with Richard Scott. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Danny Dorling and Zoe Williams: Slowdown
Although our events programme is on hold at the moment, we’re delighted that Danny Dorling and Zoe Williams could get together virtually to record this podcast in lieu of the planned event. In his intriguing and counterintuitive new book Slowdown (Yale), Danny Dorling argues that, contrary to what most of us believe, human life is actually slowing down, in diverse areas from birth rate to GDP to technological innovation. And, what’s more, in an arresting graphic style combining text and data with illustrations by Kirsten McClure, he shows how slowing down can be good for the planet, for the economy and for our lives in general. For more information on the book and Danny's project, you can visit the Slowdown website here You can order Slowdown from us here: lrb.me/order Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Mick Herron and Miranda Carter: Joe Country
Mick Herron’s hero/anti-hero Jackson Lamb is everything Le Carré’s Smiley isn’t, as well as quite a lot of what he is. Drunk, obese, bone-idle and ridiculously talented in the dark arts of spycraft, he is also ridiculously loyal to the inhabitants of Slough House, a group of misfits, addicts and screw-ups who have been exiled from the security services for a range of misdemeanours both real and concocted. His five Slough House novels so far are brutal, ruthless, intricately plotted and, it’s important to mention, also extremely funny. Herron presented the sixth of them, Joe Country (John Murray) in the company of historian and novelist Miranda Carter who has, as M.J. Carter, herself created a series of brilliant thrillers, beginning with The Strangler Vine. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Plastic Emotions: Shiromi Pinto, Owen Hatherley and Olivia Sudjic
‘We architects must be idealists’, wrote Minnette de Silva, Sri Lanka’s first female architect. Shiromi Pinto’s second novel, Plastic Emotions (Influx Press) is based on de Silva’s life, charting her affair with Le Corbusier and her attempt to rebuild Sri Lanka in the aftermath of independence. Pinto was in conversation with Owen Hatherley, whose most recent book is The Adventures of Owen Hatherley in the Post-Soviet Space, and Olivia Sudjic, the author of Exposure. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sam Contis and Joanna Biggs: Dorothea Lange’s Day Sleeper
Sam Contis discusses ‘Dorothea Lange’s Day Sleeper’, the way women photographers are remembered and forgotten and how one artist encounters another in the world and in the archive, with Joanna Biggs, assistant editor at the LRB. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Lars Iyer and Jon Day: Nietzsche and the Burbs
Lars Iyer, author of the Spurious trilogy and Wittgenstein Jr. revisits philosophy in his latest novel Nietzsche and the Burbs (Melville House). Set in a modern secondary school, Iyer’s novel follows a group of students through their last few weeks of school, centring on an enigmatic and charismatic recent transferee from private education, nicknamed by his fellow pupils ‘Nietzsche’ both for his brilliance and intimations of oncoming madness. Iyer is currently Reader in Creative Writing at Newcastle University, where he was formerly a long-time lecturer in philosophy. Iyer was in conversation with Jon Day, author of Homing. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jean Sprackland and Chris McCabe: These Silent Mansions
In her previous book Strands poet and essayist Jean Sprackland brought lyrically to life the hidden histories of objects found on her local beaches. Now in These Silent Mansions (Jonathan Cape) she brings together a magpie-like collector’s instinct, a historian’s restless curiosity and a poet’s keen sensibility to investigate what graveyards can tell us about both the dead and the living. Revisiting cemeteries in the towns and cities she has over the years called home, she unearths the fascinating, moss-hidden histories of those buried there, and investigates how memory and remembering ties us to the past, the present and the future. Sprackland was in conversation with Chris McCabe, a writer who has travelled extensively through the graveyards of London in books such as Cenotaph South, In the Catacombs and most recently, The East Edge. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Anne Enright and Andrew O’Hagan: Actress
Anne Enright’s latest novel Actress (Cape) tells the story of the relationship between Irish theatre legend Katherine O'Dell and her daughter Norah, as told by Norah herself. Early stardom in Hollywood, triumphs and tragedies on the stages of Dublin and London, and a career unravelling into infamy and eventual insanity are vividly evoked in a brilliant novel about mothers, daughters, secrets and the corrosiveness of fame. Anne Enright, author of six previous novels including Booker-winning The Gathering was in conversation with Andrew O’Hagan, editor-at-large for the LRB and author of many works of fiction and non-fiction, most recently The Secret Life: Three True Stories (Faber). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Leïla Slimani & Amia Srinivasan: Sex and Lies
Leïla Slimani was the first Moroccan woman to win France’s prestigious Prix Goncourt for her novel Lullaby. Her latest book Sex and Lies (Faber) departs from fiction to explore the lives of and give a voice to the young women of Morocco, struggling to survive and thrive in a deeply conservative, patriarchal culture. Slimani was in conversation about her work with Professor Amia Srinivasan, tutorial fellow in Philosophy at Oxford and contributing editor at the LRB, where she has published articles on, inter alia, sexual politics, sharks and octopuses. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Julia Ebner and Daniel Trilling: Going Dark: The Secret Social Lives of Extremists
By day, Julia Ebner works at a counter-extremism think tank, monitoring radical groups from the outside, but two years ago, she began to feel that she was only seeing half the picture. She needed to get inside the groups to truly understand them. So she decided to go undercover in her spare time - late nights, holidays, weekends - adopting five different identities, and joining a dozen extremist groups from across the ideological spectrum including White Supremacists, ISIS, German Neo-Nazis, ‘Trad Wives’ and ‘Jihadi Brides’. The results of her research are presented in Going Dark (Bloomsbury), and give us a terrifying and essential insight into the mindset of extremism and the motives and strategies of its adherents. She was in conversation with Daniel Trilling, author of Bloody Nasty People and Lights in the Distance. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Beethoven: The Poets’ Take: Anthony Anaxagorou, Raymond Antrobus & Ruth Padel
Like Beethoven, the poet Ruth Padel first came to love and understand music through playing the viola. Her great grandfather, a concert pianist, studied music in Leipzig with Beethoven’s friend and contemporary. Her latest collection Beethoven Variations (Chatto) is simultaneously a biography in verse of the great composer and a passionate and highly personal account of how one creative genius can feed, and feed on, another. She was joined in an evening of readings and conversation about Beethoven, poetry and music by poets Raymond Antrobus and Anthony Anaxagorou, both of whom are currently engaged in creative projects working on and from the life and work of Beethoven. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Will Harris & Rachael Allen: RENDANG
Will Harris reads from his debut collection RENDANG, alongside poet and editor Rachael Allen. Find out about upcoming events at the Bookshop: lrb.me/bookshopeventspod Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Samantha Harvey and Tessa Hadley: The Shapeless Unease
The writer Samantha Harvey has won wide acclaim and a devoted following for her novels, most recently The Western Wind, set in mediavel Somerset. In her latest book The Shapeless Unease: A Year of Not Sleeping (Cape) she turns to philosophical memoir, with an account of a bout of insomnia that afflicted her from out of the blue, and led her to re-examine many of her assumptions about life, about writing, and about the human mind. She was in conversation about her work with novelist Tessa Hadley, who has described The Shapeless Unease as ‘gritty with particulars, concrete and substantial even when it is most philosophical and far-reaching … What a beautiful book.’ Find out about upcoming events at the Bookshop: lrb.me/bookshopeventspod Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Square Haunting: Francesca Wade & Alexandra Harris
In the period between the wars nearby Mecklenburgh Square was home to many artists, writers and radicals. In a stunning work of rediscovery Francesca Wade focuses on five remarkable women who lived there: the modernist poet and visionary H.D; crime writer and translator of Dante Dorothy L. Sayers; classicist Jane Harrison; economic historian Eileen Power; and writer and publisher Virginia Woolf. Co-editor of the White Review, Francesca Wade’s articles have appeared in the LRB, TLS, Financial Times, Prospect and New Statesman. Square Haunting is her first full-length book and is published by Faber. She was in conversation with Alexandra Harris, whose books include Romantic Moderns and Weatherland. Find out about upcoming events at the Bookshop: lrb.me/bookshopeventspod Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Alexander Zevin and Tariq Ali: Liberalism at Large
Alexander Zevin's Liberalism at Large (Verso) is the first critical biography of the Economist newspaper, which, since 1843, has been the most tireless – and internationally influential – champion of the liberal cause anywhere in the world. But what exactly is liberalism, and how has its message evolved? Zevin presents a history of liberalism on the move, confronting the challenges that classical doctrine left unresolved – the rise of democracy, the expansion of empire, the ascendancy of finance – holding a mirror to the politics and personalities that helped shape a liberal world order now under increasing strain. Zevin was in conversation with Tariq Ali. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Rachel Cusk & Chris Power: Coventry
The Observer called Rachel Cusk’s Outline trilogy ‘a landmark in twenty-first century English literature, the culmination of an artist’s unshakeable efforts to forge her own path’. The essays in her latest book Coventry explore other writers who forged their own path – among them Natalia Ginzburg, Olivia Manning and D.H. Lawrence – and wider themes political, personal and ethical. The discussion focussed on the themes that she has explored in her impressive body of work to date: the thinking and philosophy that have driven her to these positions, how her thinking is evolving and the new challenges that she is exploring. Cusk was in conversation with Chris Power, author of Mothers (Faber and Faber). Rachel Cusk is the author of the trilogy Outline, Transit, Kudos; the memoirs A Life’s Work, The Last Supper and Aftermath; and several other novels: Saving Agnes (winner of the Whitbread Award), The Temporary, The Country Life (winner of the Somerset Maugham Award), The Lucky Ones, In the Fold, *Arlington Park* and The Bradshaw Variations. She was chosen as one of Granta’s 2003 Best Young British Novelists. She has been shortlisted for the Goldsmiths Prize three times, most recently for Kudos. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Benjamin Moser and Lara Feigel on Susan Sontag
One of the great thinkers of the twentieth century, Susan Sontag’s writing – on art and politics, feminism and homosexuality, celebrity and style, medicine and drugs, radicalism, Fascism, Freudianism, Communism and Americanism – forms an indispensable guide to our modern world. Benjamin Moser’s Sontag: Her Life is the first biography based on exclusive access to her restricted archive, providing fascinating insights into both the public myth and private life of an endlessly complex individual. Moser was at the shop to discuss Sontag’s life and legacy with Lara Feigel, author of Free Woman: Life, Liberation and Doris Lessing. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Stephen Hough and James Jolly: Rough Ideas
Long regarded as one of the world’s leading pianists, Stephen Hough is also a fine and perceptive writer, whose first novel was published last year. Rough Ideas: Reflections on Music and More (Faber) brings together around 200 of his short essays, many of which began as notes made ‘during that dead time on the road’ that is the lot of the international performer – at airports, on planes and in hotel rooms. In these ‘jottings’, Hough ranges widely over all aspects of music and musical life, as well as people and places, art and literature, religion and ethics. Hough was in conversation with James Jolly, Editor-in-Chief of Gramophone magazine. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Astra Taylor and David Graeber: Democracy May Not Exist, But ...
In her latest book, Astra Taylor – ‘a rare public intellectual, utterly committed to asking humanity’s most profound questions yet entirely devoid of pretensions’ (Naomi Klein) – argues that democracy is not just in crisis, but that real democracy, inclusive and egalitarian, has never existed. Democracy May Not Exist but We’ll Miss It When It’s Gone (Verso) aims to re-examine what we mean by democracy, what we want from it, and understand why it is so hard to realise. Taylor was in conversation with David Graeber, author of Bullshit Jobs and Professor of anthropology at the London School of Economics. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Diane Williams and Lara Pawson: Collected Stories
Diane Williams’s short (most of them very short) stories have been captivating literary audiences on both sides of the Atlantic for the last three decades. Ben Marcus, in his introduction to The Collected Stories, has described them as ‘fictions of perfect strangeness’, adding that they ‘prize enigma and the uncanny above all else.’ Williams read from her work, and was in conversation with Lara Pawson, formerly the BBC’s correspondent in Angola and author of This is the Place to Be (CB Editions). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Celia Paul and Catherine Lampert: Self-Portrait
Celia Paul, born in India in 1959 and now resident in Bloomsbury is widely regarded as one of the most important artists working in Britain today. Following a passionate affair with painter Lucian Freud and figuring in several of his canvases she emerged as an immensely talented painter, initially focussing on intimate depictions of family life before more recently turning to the broader scale of landscape and sea-scape. Her memoir Self-Portrait (Jonathan Cape) is an invaluable first-hand account of the trials and rewards of making great art, and has been described by Esther Freud as ‘An insight into the white-knuckle determination needed to make great art, and why it is so few women painters reach the heights. An astoundingly honest book, moving and engrossing – full of truths.’ Paul was in conversation about her work with curator and art writer Catherine Lampert. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is Not Propaganda: Peter Pomerantsev with Marina Hyde and Carl Miller
Something strange has happened to truth in the past few years. Politicians, marketeers, Twitterists and others seem to have come to the conclusion that it doesn’t matter if what they say is true as long as some people believe it (and even that doesn’t seem to matter all that much sometimes). In his latest book This is Not Propaganda: Adventures in the War Against Reality (Faber) intrepid investigative reporter Peter Pomerantsev travels the world, from China to Russia to Syria to the Balkans and to Brexit Britain in an often surprising investigation of why we can no longer believe what we say, or say what we believe. Peter Pomerantsev was in conversation with Guardian columnist Marina Hyde and Carl Miller, author of The Death of the Gods. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Saidiya Hartman and Lola Olufemi: Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments
At the beginning of the 20th Century, the first emancipated generation of black women in the USA were obliged, sometimes enabled and often hindered in creating new ways of living after the abolition of slavery. In Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments (Profile), Professor Saidiya Hartman tells the inspiring and surprising stories of these pioneers, whose discoveries about how to be in the world have been followed and emulated by people, black, white, gay, straight, cis, trans and other, ever since. Hartman was in conversation about her work with writer and activist Lola Olufemi. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jorge Galán and Mark Dowd: November
Jorge Galán’s extraordinary non-fiction novel Noviembre, now published in an English translation by Jason Wilson as November, recounts the horrifying murder of six Jesuit priests and two women during the Salvadorian civil war in 1989, dealing both with its aftermath and the complex political situation from which the atrocity arose. Its original publication in Spanish led to death threats against the author which forced Galán to flee his native country. Galán was in conversation with journalist Mark Dowd who has written widely and produced several documentaries on the relationship between religion and human rights. The interpreter was Cecilia Lipovseck from [Multilateral London][2]. This event is made possible by the generous support of Instituto Cervantes and Elisabeth Hayek. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Kathleen Jamie and Philip Hoare: Surfacing
In her latest book ‘Surfacing’ (Sort of Books), poet and essayist Kathleen Jamie explores what emerges: from the earth, from memory and from the mind. Her travels take her from Arctic Alaska to the sand dunes and machair of Scotland in a quest to discover what archaeology might tell us about the past, the present and the future. Her writing throughout is marked, as always, by an acute attention to the natural world. She was in conversation about her work with Philip Hoare, author of ‘Leviathan’ and ‘Risingtidefallingstar’. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

LRB at 40: Jeremy Harding, Nikita Lalwani and Adam Shatz
Jeremy Harding and Adam Shatz discussed shared preoccupations including decolonisation and orientalism, Israel-Palestine, 20th-century music, and France, in conversation with the novelist Nikita Lalwani. This was the last in a series of events celebrating the LRB's 40th anniversary. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

LRB at 40: Nell Dunn, Tessa Hadley and Joanna Biggs
Nell Dunn and Tessa Hadley discuss fictional representations of women’s everyday lives with the LRB’s Joanna Biggs, as part of a series of events celebration the LRB's 40th anniversary. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

LRB at 40: William Davies and Katrina Forrester
On Wednesday 16 October, William Davies and Katrina Forrester discussed shared preoccupations including the subjects of their recent books, Nervous States: How Feeling Took Over the World and In the Shadow of Justice: Postwar Liberalism and the Remaking of Political Philosophy. This was part of a series of events celebrating the LRB's 40th anniversary. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

LRB at 40: Rosemary Hill and Iain Sinclair
Rosemary Hill and Iain Sinclair talk to the LRB's digital editor, Sam Kinchin-Smith, about their shared preoccupations with London, as written about in the London Review of Books. This was the first in a series of events celebrating the LRB's 40th anniversary. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Against Memoir: Michelle Tea and Juliet Jacques
In Against Memoir (And Other Stories), Michelle Tea takes us through the hard times and wild creativity of queer life in America. Via a series of essays, addresses and fragments she reclaims Valerie Solanas as an absurdist, remembers the lives and deaths of the lesbian motorcycle gang HAGS and introduces us to activists at a trans protest camp. Tea was in conversation with writer Juliet Jacques. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Time Lived Without Its Flow: Denise Riley, Max Porter, Emily Berry
Denise Riley’s devastating long poem ‘A Part Song’, written in response to the death of her son, was first published in the LRB in 2012 and later became the kernel of her acclaimed collection Say Something Back (Picador). The poem’s prose counterpart Time Lived, Without Its Flow was initially published in a small edition by Capsule Press but has now been made more readily available in a new edition, also from Picador. Riley was in conversation about her essay with the writer Max Porter, author of Grief is the Thing with Feathers and Lanny and with the poet Emily Berry, author of Dear Boy and Stranger, Baby. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ian Penman and Jennifer Hodgson: It Gets Me Home, This Curving Track
Music critic Ian Penman is back with a pioneering book of essays alluding to a lost moment in musical history ‘when cultures collided and a cross-generational and “cross-colour” awareness was born’. It Gets Me Home, This Curving Track (Fitzcarraldo) focuses on black artists, including James Brown, Charlie Parker and Prince, who were at the forefront of innovation and the white artists that followed, adapting their sounds for the mainstream. Described by Iain Sinclair as ‘a laureate for marginal places’ Penman began his career in 1970s at the NME and has since gone on to write for publications such as Sight & Sound, Uncut and the London Review of Books. Penman was in conversation with writer and editor Jennifer Hodgson. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Nell Zink and Alex Clark: Doxology
Nell Zink, born in Virginia in 1964 and now resident in Germany, is one of the most remarkable novelists of her, and indeed any generation. Her exuberant creations, always inflected with political, social and ecological concern, have won worldwide acclaim for their recklessness, their inventiveness and their sheer stylistic brilliance. She read from the latest of them, Doxology (4th Estate), a tale that begins with the iconic tragedy of 11 September 2001 and spins out from it into America’s past and potential futures, she discussed it with Alex Clark of the Guardian. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Nicola Barker and Ali Smith: I Am Sovereign
In twelve inimitable, eccentric, hilarious, disturbing and powerful novels, Nicola Barker has established herself as one of the most inventive and powerful voices in contemporary British fiction. To mark the publication of the thirteenth, I Am Sovereign (William Heinemann), Barker was in conversation about experiment, fiction, contemporaneity and a great deal else besides with the novelist and short story writer Ali Smith. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Deborah Levy and Shahidha Bari: The Man Who Saw Everything
‘A writer is only as interesting as what she pays attention to.’ Deborah Levy is the author of many plays, novels, short stories and essay collections. Inventive, experimental and compulsively readable, her work has won many awards, accolades and prizes. Her latest novel The Man Who Saw Everything (Hamish Hamilton) plays with time and memory in a gripping exploration of the weight of history and the disastrous consequences of trying to ignore it. ‘There’s no one touching the brilliance of Deborah Levy’s prose today’ writes Lee Rourke. Levy was in conversation with Shahidha Bari, academic, critic and author of Dressed: The Secret Life of Clothes (Jonathan Cape). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Tragedy, the Greeks and Us: Simon Critchley and Shahidha Bari
At the New School in New York, where Simon Critchley teaches, ‘Critchley on Tragedy’ is one of the most consistently oversubscribed courses. Now, in Tragedy, the Greeks and Us (Profile) he explains, in often surprising ways, why Greek Tragedies remain so compellingly relevant to modern times, in the way they confront us with things about ourselves we don’t want to believe, but are nevertheless true. Critchley was in conversation with Shahidha Bari, Senior Lecturer in Romanticism at Queen Mary, University of London. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Afterglow: Eileen Myles
In 1990, Eileen Myles chose Rosie from a litter on the street, and their connection instantly became central to the writer's life and work. During the course of their sixteen years together, Myles was madly devoted to the dog’s wellbeing, especial... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Mars Room: Rachel Kushner and Adam Thirlwell
Romy Hall, the protagonist of Rachel Kushner’s latest novel *[The Mars Room][1]* (Cape), is beginning two consecutive life sentences plus six months at a women’s correctional facility. Cut off from everything she knows and loves – The Mars Room, a San Francisco strip club where she once earned a living, her seven-year-old son Jackson now in the care of her estranged mother – Romy begins a terrifying new life, detailed with humour and precision by Kushner. George Saunders writes ‘Kushner is a young master. I honestly don't know how she is able to know so much and convey all of this in such a completely entertaining and mesmerizing way.’ She read from her latest novel, and was in conversation about it with the novelist and critic Adam Thirlwell. [1]: /on-our-shelves/book/9781910702673/mars-room Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Melissa Benn and Ed Miliband: Life Lessons
In Life Lessons (Verso) Melissa Benn explores how we need to rethink education for life. As more and more of us live and work longer than ever before, a National Education Service should, like the NHS, be the framework that ensures a life-long... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

John Berger – A Writer of Our Time: Joshua Sperling and Leo Hollis
John Berger was one of the most various of writers and men: art critic, essayist, novelist, poet and much-missed friend of the shop. In *[A Writer of Our Time][1]* (Verso), Berger’s first full biographical study, Joshua Sperling traces Berger’s... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Peter Pomerantsev & Devorah Baum: The Politics of Feeling
Issue 146 of Granta is themed around the politics of feeling. Guest co-editor Devorah Baum interviews Peter Pomerantsev about his piece ‘Normalnost’, which explores how what once appeared the exclusive culture of post-Soviet Russia – the denial and... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Daddy Issues: Katherine Angel and Sarah Moss
Katherine Angel’s Daddy Issues engages with what Lauren Elkin has called ‘that forgotten figure in feminism’s critique of patriarchy: the father’, examining the place of fathers in contemporary culture and asking how the mixture of love and hatred we feel towards our fathers can be turned into a relationship that is generative rather than destructive. If we are to effectively dismantle patriarchy, Angel argues, it is vital that fathers are kept on the hook. Angel was in conversation with Sarah Moss, whose sixth novel Ghost Wall was longlisted for the Women’s Prize 2019. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

An American Marriage: Tayari Jones and Cathy Rentzenbrink
Winner of the Women’s Prize for Fiction, An American Marriage (Oneworld) is a thrilling depiction of the American Dream in freefall. Barack Obama (no less) has called it ‘a moving portrayal of the effects of a wrongful conviction on a young... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.