Listen to the latest literary events recorded at the London Review Bookshop, covering fiction, poetry, politics, music and much more. Find out about our upcoming events here More from the Bookshop: Discover our author of the month, book of the week and more: https://lrb.me/bkshppod From the LRB: Subscribe to the LRB: https://lrb.me/subsbkshppod Close Readings podcast: https://lrb.me/crbkshppod LRB Audiobooks: https://lrb.me/audiobooksbkshppod Bags, binders and more at the LRB Store: https://lrb.me/storebkshppod Get in touch: podcasts@lrb.co.uk
Doireann Ní Ghríofa & Rachael Allen: Said the Dead
Doireann Ní Ghríofa’s new book Said the Dead is part history, part ghost story and part unreliable memoir, exploring the lives, presences and forgotten voices of a derelict Victorian mental asylum in Cork. Ní Ghríofa, whose previous book A Ghost in the Throat won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, was in conversation with Rachael Allen, author of the poetry collections Kingdomland and God Complex. You can buy a copy of Said the Dead from the London Review Bookshop. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Daniel Trilling & William Davies: If We Tolerate This
Regular LRB contributor Daniel Trilling has been researching and writing about the far right in Britain and beyond for more than a decade. His latest book If We Tolerate This (Picador), published ahead of the momentous English local, Senedd and Scottish Parliament elections on May 7, is a short and powerful polemic examining how far right ideas have come to dominate the political agenda, and outlining a strategy for how we might combat them. Pankaj Mishra writes ‘Combining forensic enquiry with moral passion, Daniel Trilling has emerged as one of our most intrepid and resourceful reporters.’ He was in conversation about his work with William Davies, Professor of Political Economy at Goldsmiths, University of London, and author of This Is Not Normal and Nervous States. You can buy a copy of If We Tolerate This from the London Review Bookshop. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
M. John Harrison & Julia Armfield: The End of Everything
The great M. John Harrison – ‘The closest thing we have to a present-day Wyndham or Ballard’ according to the New Statesman – returns to the shop to present his latest novel The End of Everything. In a post-apocalyptic Britain a beachcomber makes his living collecting artefacts washed up on the Channel shore. But when he comes across a strange, shape-shifting creature he realises he must take it inland, before it destroys everything he knows. The author was in conversation with Julia Armfield, author of Private Rites, Our Wives Under the Sea and Salt Slow. You can buy a copy of The End of Everything from the London Review Bookshop. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Brian Dillon & Olivia Laing: Ambivalence
In Ambivalence (Fitzcarraldo) Brian Dillon explores what learning meant to its author, what it enabled and denied, between the ages of seventeen and twenty-six, when he left his native Dublin. It's at once a memoir of that city in the 1980s and 1990s, an uncynical portrait of the adolescent and early-adult mind, and an intimate defence of radical thinking about literature and life. Dillon was in conversation with writer Olivia Laing, author of The Silver Book. You can buy a copy of Ambivalence from the London Review Bookshop. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
David Keenan & Andrew O’Hagan: Boyhood
David Keenan’s Boyhood (White Rabbit) opens in 1979 with the abduction of a young boy outside a Glasgow football ground. Nine years later, the boy’s brother, blessed with the power to see into the past and future by a perhaps imaginary angel, leads us on a journey from wartime Paris to the Troubles in the 1970s, Mexico City in the 1980s to – of course – Glasgow, as the novel builds to an extraordinary, intense, climactic moment of redemption. ‘A complete triumph’ writes Irvine Welsh. ‘It slaps our dull, sterile culture hard across the face with a studded, uncompromising literary glove.’ David Keenan read from Boyhood, and talked about its themes, with LRB contributing editor Andrew O’Hagan. You can buy a copy of Boyhood from the London Review Bookshop. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Andrew Durbin & Tash Aw: The Wonderful World That Almost Was
Andrew Durbin’s The Wonderful World That Almost Was unravels, for the first time, the intertwined stories and work of two boundary burning, paradigm-tilting, never more relevant American artists, Peter Hujar and Paul Thek. Weaving together deft art criticism with moving portraits of both men's inner lives, and assembled with exhaustive research, Durbin’s book is an ode to a lost but still-living world—and two men who defined it. You can buy a copy of The Wonderful World That Almost Was from the London Review Bookshop. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Michelle Tea: Valencia at 25
Michelle Tea’s queer autofictional classic Valencia, which Torrey Peters described as ‘one of the few truly life changing books I've encountered’, is a quarter of a century old; to celebrate, her UK publisher Serpent’s Tail have released a 25-year anniversary special edition, with a new introduction by Maggie Nelson. Tea was in conversation with Lamorna Ash, author of Dark, Salt, Clear and Don’t Forget We’re Here Forever. You can buy a copy of Valencia from the London Review Bookshop. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Chloe Aridjis & Jennifer Higgie: The Shadow of the Object
While recuperating in hospital in Mexico, Flora meets Wilhelmina, an elderly German woman with pneumonia, who collects pre-cinema toys and instruments. The two of them embark on a series of dream-like conversations in the hospital corridors. Wilhelmina puts on a magic lantern show for Flora, leaving her spellbound. Then things take an unexpected turn… Ardijis was reading from The Shadow of the Object and in conversation with Jennifer Higgie, editor of Frieze magazine, whose most recent book was The Other Side: A Journey into Women, Art and the Spirit World. You can buy a copy of The Shadow of the Object from the London Review Bookshop. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Sarah Schulman & So Mayer
To celebrate the publication of their respective new books, So Mayer (Bad Language) and Sarah Schulman (The Fantasy and Necessity of Solidarity) discussed the radical affinities between their work in exposing the power structures underpinning both the ways in which we communicate, and the language we use to do so. You can buy Bad Language and The Fantasy and Necessity of Solidarity from the London Review Bookshop. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Margaret Drabble: The Great Good Places
Margaret Drabble’s new collection, The Great Good Places, is an omnium gatherum of essays, stories and memoir, drawing on a lifetime’s worth of insight and wisdom. ‘Generous, perceptive, and good-humoured, Margaret Drabble is always a delight to read’, wrote Joan Bakewell; The Great Good Places has all these qualities in evidence. Drabble was in conversation with Tessa Hadley, whose most recent novel is The Party (Vintage). You can buy a copy of The Great Good Places from the London Review Bookshop. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Polly Barton & Chal Ravens: What Am I, A Deer?
What Am I, A Deer?, Polly Barton’s debut novel, takes on the vagaries of translation – linguistic translation, self-translation, and reinvention – which she’s previously explored in the much-loved Fifty Sounds, also published by Fitzcarraldo. ‘The protagonist of What Am I, A Deer? finds herself both Schrödinger and his cat on entering the Frankfurt tram, the office, and the ‘black box’ of the karaoke booth; inside and outside simultaneously, trying to figure out whether she exists and in a state of tingling oscillation’, writes Jen Calleja. ‘Polly Barton is the maestra of controlled dissolution.’ You can buy a copy of What Am I, A Deer? from the London Review Bookshop. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Luke Kennard & Will Eaves - Black Bag
In an audacious new take on the campus novel Luke Kennard’s protagonist, a penniless out-of-work actor, takes on a job unlike any other. He is hired to sit silently at the back of a lecture hall, concealed within a black bag. Black Bag (John Murray) examines, hilariously, modern masculinity, romance, identity and much else besides. ‘Such a smart and philosophical novel really has no business being this entertaining’ writes Anna Metcalfe. ‘Black Bag is hilarious, profound, tender and deranged. A deeply cathartic read for anyone seeking the funny side of the total decimation of the arts.’ Luke Kennard was in conversation with fellow poet and novelist Will Eaves. You can buy a copy of Black Bag from the London Review Bookshop. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Claire-Louise Bennett & Ben Pester: Magic & Mechanics
In Magic and Mechanics, the latest in Scratch Books’ ‘Reverse Engineering’ series, six writers – George Saunders, Claire-Louise Bennett, Mark Haddon, Camilla Grudova, Amber Medland and Colin Barrett – present and disassemble one of their recent short stories. To celebrate its launch, join Claire-Louise Bennett in conversation with novelist Ben Pester as they discuss their work, exploring the ways that their backgrounds in theatre have led them to create exhilarating and innovative prose writing. You can buy a copy of Magic & Mechanics from the London Review Bookshop. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Jeremy Harding & Kevin Okoth: Analogue Africa
In Analogue Africa, (Verso) essayist and LRB contributing editor Jeremy Harding explores the anti-colonial imagination through the works of African artists and film-makers, including Seydou Keïta, Sanlé Sory, Ernest Cole, Sarah Maldoror, John Akomfrah, William Kentridge and Binyavanga Wainaina. ‘In Analogue Africa, [Harding] is writing at the peak of his powers’, writes Adam Shatz, ‘eloquent, perceptive, attentive at once to questions of form and to the moral and political stakes involved in the creation of postcolonial culture.’ Harding was in conversation with Kevin Okoth, author of Red Africa and regular contributor to the LRB. You can buy a copy of Analogue Africa from the London Review Bookshop. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
John Lanchester & Hattie Crisell: Look What You Made Me Do
When a steamy Netflix show called ‘Cheating’ becomes the much-talked-about megahit of the moment, baby-boomer Kate is alarmed to find it contains secrets from her marriage to architect husband Jack that only she should know. John Lanchester, LRB contributing editor and author of The Debt to Pleasure and Capital, explores popular culture, the dynamics of marriage and intergenerational conflict in his latest novel Look What You Made Me Do (Faber). Lanchester was in conversation with Hattie Crisell, author of In Writing (Granta). You can buy a copy of Look What You Made Me Do from the London Review Bookshop. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Wayne Holloway-Smith: RABBITBOX
Rabbitbox is Wayne Holloway-Smith’s first foray into long-form narrative, but retains the originality, compression and power which characterize his poetry collections (most recently Love Minus Love, shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot prize). Exploring a mother and her young son’s reactions to an all-consuming domestic threat, Joelle Taylor has described how, in Rabbitbox, Holloway-Smith ‘bunches language like a fist, one that unravels into shadow butterflies’. Holloway-Smith was in conversation with the actor Adeel Akhtar. You can buy a copy of Rabbitbox from the London Review Bookshop. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Lauren J. Joseph & Olivia Laing: Lean Cat, Savage Cat
Artist and film-maker Lauren J. Joseph’s first novel At Certain Points We Touch, described by Olivia Laing as ‘A stone-cold masterpiece’ was hailed as a Debut Novel of the Year by the Observer in 2022. Her second novel takes us from the night-spots of Soho to the febrile Berlin music scene. A story of obsession and excess, doppelgängers and disassociation, fame and the terrible things we do to feel loved, Lean Cat, Savage Cat (Bloomsbury) is an unforgettable novel from one of the most exciting writers at work today. The author was in conversation about her book with Olivia Laing, who describes it as ‘An erotic spectacular of self-creation and spiralling disintegration.’ You can buy a copy of Lean Cat, Savage Cat from the London Review Bookshop. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Isabel Waidner & Sarah Wood: As If
Isabel Waidner’s latest novel As If (Hamish Hamilton) is an existential farce exploring fading hopes and lost dreams through the medium of two very different, but very similar men. ‘Reading Waidner is like plugging into an electric socket of language and ideas’ wrote Jude Cook in the Guardian. Waidner was in conversation with artist and film-maker Sarah Wood. You can buy a copy of As If from the London Review Bookshop. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Vigdis Hjorth & Catherine Taylor: Repetition
Norwegian writer Vigdis Hjorth has been a shop favourite ever since we discovered Long Live the Post Horn, a powerful tale about loneliness and the struggle between capitalism and humanity told through the microcosm of the Norwegian postal service. Hjorth is in conversation with Catherine Taylor to discuss Repetition (Verso), her sixth novel to be published in English, translated by her indefatigable champion Charlotte Barslund. As winter approaches in Norway and the daylight dwindles, a chance encounter prompts a novelist to re-examine her past. The seismic events following her sixteenth birthday return with haunting vividness, exposing a story both utterly familiar and desperately strange. Catherine Taylor is a writer and critic and the former deputy director of English PEN. Her first book, The Stirrings, won the 2024 TLS Ackerley Prize for memoir and life-writing. More from the Bookshop: Discover our author of the month, book of the week and more: https://lrb.me/bkshppod From the LRB: Subscribe to the LRB: https://lrb.me/subsbkshppod Close Readings podcast: https://lrb.me/crbkshppod LRB Audiobooks: https://lrb.me/audiobooksbkshppod Bags, binders and more at the LRB Store: https://lrb.me/storebkshppod Get in touch: podcasts@lrb.co.uk Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
James Meek & Lara Pawson: Your Life Without Me
In his latest novel Your Life Without Me (Canongate) journalist and novelist James Meek investigates the unpredictable links between personal trauma, family dysfunction and political violence. A retired schoolmaster is invited by the police to meet a former pupil accused of plotting to destroy St Paul’s Cathedral. ‘This is his best novel yet, writes Alex Preston, ‘a dark and unsettling meditation on marriage, fatherhood and architecture. Every page rings with deep truth.’ James read from his book, and was in conversation about it with the writer Lara Pawson. You can by a copy of Your Life Without Me from the London Review Bookshop. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
