Trevor Berrett Click here to read the story in its entirety on The New Yorker webpage. Ben Marcus’s “The Dark Arts” was originally published in the May 20, 2013 issue of The New Yorker. Trevor “The Dark Arts” takes us to Düsseldorf where a young man named Julian Bledstein, suffering from some kind of autoimmune disorder, is seeking experimental treatment … Read more
Cristhiano Aguiar’s “Teresa” (tr. from the Portuguese by Daniel Hahn) is the seventh story in Granta 121: The Best of Young Brazilian Novelists. For an overview of the issue and links to my reviews of its other stories, please click here. So far this is the strangest and most unconventional of the stories in this issue … Read more
Ned Beauman’s “Glow” is the second story in Granta 123: Best of Young British Novelists 4. For an overview of the issue and links to my reviews of its other stories, please click here. At 28, Ned Beauman is the youngest author on this Granta list of Best Young British Novelists, which means he’ll be eligible for the … Read more
Trevor reviews Kingsley Amis’s 1969 take on the horror novel, The Green Man. Read the full post.
Trevor reviews Kingsley Amis’s 1976 alternative history novel, The Alteration. Read the full post.
Click here to read the abstract of the story on The New Yorker webpage (this week’s story is available only for subscribers). Fiona McFarlane’s “Art Appreciation” was originally published in the May 13, 2013 issue of The New Yorker. Betsy Fiona McFarlane makes this remark to interviewer Deborah Treisman about Henry, her main character in “Art Appreciation”: … Read more
People seem to be paying a bit more attention to the short story, with the success of, for example, George Saunders, Karen Russell, and Junot Díaz. I’m pleased to say that, while more conventional in structure and writing style than those three, I found a better set of short stories in Half as Happy (2013). Where the … Read more
The Best Translated Book Award has announced its winner: Satantango, by László Krasznahorkai, tr. from the Hungarian by George Szirtes This was my choice this year (and Stone Upon Stone was my choice last year — seriously, this is an award worth watching!). Here are my thoughts, and congrats to all.
I have had Johnson’s story collection (connected story collection, that is) Jesus’ Son (1992) on my shelf for a long time. For whatever reason, despite others reading it and recommending it highly, I avoided it. But I loved finally getting to know Johnson through his novella Train Dreams (my review here), which attracted me due … Read more
Kamila Shamsie’s “Vipers” is the first story in Granta 123: Best of Young British Novelists 4. For an overview of the issue and links to my reviews of its other stories, please click here. Shamsie happens to be the only novelist on the list who has written a novel I’ve read and reviewed on this blog. … Read more