Top 10 New York novels
From Edith Wharton to Jennifer Egan, the city has inspired countless stories, all of them sharing one major character – the metropolis itselfIn novels, a great city is a setting. But it’s also a...
View ArticleFiction to look out for in 2017
With hotly tipped new work from major names including Arundhati Roy and Paul Auster, 2017 looks set to be a strong year for novelsThe febrile US political atmosphere seems to have stirred something...
View ArticleThe Blot: A Novel by Jonathan Lethem review – a gambler out of luck
Jonathan Lethem runs out of moves in this story of a backgammon hustler facing the surgeon’s knifeThis review’s scanning as a pick or a pan will depend on whether you read fiction for the process or...
View ArticleJonathan Lethem: ‘I’ve always thought of myself as a dark writer, but this is...
The American novelist on writing horror, how Occupy gave capitalism back its name and the thunderbolt that has hit US politicsThe Blot, Jonathan Lethem’s noirish new novel, centres on Alexander Bruno,...
View ArticleThe Blot by Jonathan Lethem review – high-stakes backgammon and brain surgery
A professional gambler’s journey from board games to the operating table dazzles then loses its wayJonathan Lethem’s latest novel, The Blot, is a story about – well, I’m not entirely sure. Better...
View ArticleFirefighter dies after set of new Edward Norton film catches fire in Harlem
Michael R Davidson, 37, killed at Harlem apartment buildingJonathan Lethem adaptation stars Willis, Dafoe and BaldwinA New York firefighter was killed on Thursday night in a blaze at a building in...
View ArticleTop 10 genre-twisting novels | Alan Trotter
From Cervantes’ warping of chivalric romance to Flann O’Brien’s narrative games, novelist Alan Trotter picks his favourite convention-smashing talesGenre focuses our attention in such a way as to make...
View ArticleThe Feral Detective by Jonathan Lethem review: a high-wire allegory of...
A PI and a writer search for a missing student in Jonathan Lethem’s latest subversive take on classic American noirJonathan Lethem’s breakthrough as a writer came from deconstructing the apparatus of...
View ArticleThe Feral Detective by Jonathan Lethem review – are you a Rabbit or a Bear?
A road trip through the California desert becomes a thumping political allegory for a divided nationWhat is a novelist to do in the age of Trump? One option would be to write a story in which the...
View ArticleEdward Norton and Thom Yorke: 'The last thing we wanted was for it to get...
Over tea and tequila, the actor and the rock star discuss making Motherless Brooklyn, the dark forces behind Trump – and why Yorke was too messed up to score Fight ClubIn Edward Norton’s new film,...
View ArticleMotherless Brooklyn review – over-egged hardboiled noir
Edward Norton tries too hard in an atmospheric but overambitious detective thrillerAdapted from Jonathan Lethem’s novel by writer, director and star Edward Norton (and carefully crafted to display his...
View ArticleThe Arrest by Jonathan Lethem review – a retrofuturistic ride
The American author imagines a comic-book post-apocalyptic future on a New England farmYou could trace an interesting history of recent western culture through its dystopias. From Zamyatin’s We to...
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