Ship of fools: Will Aitken skewers late-capitalism and upper-class pretension in The Swells
With not one but two pirate incursions, a mutiny, and other onboard shenanigans, the novel offers a fast, noisy narrative.
Where I’m calling from: Dimitri Nasrallah mines the immigrant experience for his new novel, Hotline
Set in Montreal during the 1980s, the novel outlines the full range of the immigrant experience, from heartache to hope.
Debut novel from Camilla Grudova sold to Atlantic
Grudova’s previous collection of short fiction was delightfully strange; the new novel appears to continue in this vein.
Despite positive sales of print books, Gallup reports Americans are reading less
Where publishing is concerned, every silver lining has a big rain cloud hovering directly behind it.
Independent booksellers report strong holiday sales; publishers see challenges continuing into 2022
“I figure we lost a huge number of sales in October,” says Simon Dardick, co-publisher of Montreal’s Véhicule Press. “By the time the books came out we had missed deadlines.”
David Bowie, Cindy Sherman, and Quentin Tarantino walk into a bar: Stuart Jeffries examines the legacy of postmodernism in his new work of cultural criticism
An outcropping of French theory, postmodernism is most evident in its connection to neoliberalism and our overtly consumerist society.
The death, rebirth, and afterlife of the author in Naben Ruthnum’s A Hero of Our Time
In his debut literary novel under his own name, Ruthnum provides a slippery, serpentine narrative that calls into question notions of identity and narrative stability.
The pathology of authenticity: Percival Everett’s satire of stereotypical Black masculinity
Everett’s novel is about a Black intellectual who finds commercial success by writing a pandering, parodic work that gets taken at face value.
“Seriously flawed and morally questionable”: Guillermo del Toro, German expressionism, and the nature of noir
A noir sensibility finds its origins in German expressionism and creates a neurotic environment in which the borderline between good and evil is nonexistent.
Penguin Random House defends proposed merger with Simon & Schuster; Cuomo ordered to repay profits on COVID memoir
Two ongoing battles surround the proposed deal to combine two of the world’s largest publishers and the financial woes of a former New York governor.