Conversations with Sally Rooney on politics, power and revolution
Sally Rooney is the current darling of the literary world. Over the past 18 months, the 27-year-old novelist’s books have been at the centre of a seven-way bidding auction, won the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award and a place on the Man Booker longlist, and adapted into an upcoming BBC
THE EYING OF MY SCARS
“Collection of Sylvia Plath’s possessions to be sold at auction” reads Tuesday’s Guardian. Up for grabs are the proof copy of Plath’s novel The Bell Jar (1963) and her pre-publication author’s copy. Both are written on: her proof edition is “carefully corrected”, and her author’s c
The Embryonic Tale: Hugo, Enjolras and Les Misères
Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables has travelled far from its father’s pen. Eager for material, contemporary culture seems to regularly lead it astray, projecting simplification (or mere fabrication) onto its surface. However, as it rolled from the press in 1862, Hugo’s novel had already strayed fr
Kin calling out the past like a foreigner
‘Citizen’ is a charged and genre-defying artwork about institutionalised racism.
The canvas of literature
“Three days after I arrived”, Naomi Alderman recalls, “was the start of the Jewish festival of Succot.” This complicated her start to term, as she wasn’t allowed to do any work other than reading for three days. Combined with the lack of kosher food provided by her college, it all proved s
