Monthly archive - October 2016

Writing for The Observer (Culture) at the end of 2015, Michael Pettis and Josh Feola wrote that "China has changed so dramatically in the past three decades that it is not just foreigners who stumble over stereotypes."  Read more

Every literary genre has its subgenres, but there is perhaps no genre so packed with niches as horror fiction. You've got your supernatural horror, postapocalyptic horror, fantasy horror, sci-fi horror, comedy horror, and then all the vampire, werewolf, and zombie horror.  Read more

"Small presses do take a lot of risks, but talking so closely to John Murray, for instance, they're just as passionate. Yes, they have to factor in a lot more things. They're still taking risks, albeit at a larger scale. There are mainstream presses doing the same thing and publishing new authors, which is great." On seeing The Loney's success, he says: "We have very mixed feelings.  Read more

When Paul Beatty's The Sellout was first published in America in 2015, it was a small release. It got a rave review in the daily New York Times and one in the weekly New York Times Book Review, too, for good measure. But by and large, it was not a conversation-generating book. The New Yorker, for example, did not put James Wood, nor any of its other book critics, on the case.  Read more