The fitness fetish: The Motion of the Body Through Space, by Lionel Shriver, reviewed
In her 2010 novel So Much for That, Lionel Shriver examined the American healthcare system with a spiky sensitivity. Big…
Fun and games: I Am Sovereign, by Nicola Barker, reviewed
In 2017’s Goldsmiths Prize-winning novel H(A)PPY, Nicola Barker strewed pages with multicoloured text. The Cauliflower, her joyful previous offering, employed…
It happened one summer: Bitter Orange, by Claire Fuller, reviewed
Approaching her death, and the end of Claire Fuller’s third novel, Frances Jellico — for the most part a stickler…
A love letter to the short story
On a recent Guardian podcast, Chris Power — who has written a short story column in the Guardian for a…
Looking back, losing bits
As Roddy Doyle’s 12th novel begins, Victor Forde, a washed-up writer, has returned to the part of Dublin where he…
Life classes
It has taken much of a celebrated literary life for Elif Batuman to produce a novel. At the beginning of…
Let’s hear it for the boys
Girls creator Lena Dunham has received criticism from all sides. Detractors on the right see her as an exhibitionist provocateur.…
Murky subjects, misty settings
A short-story renaissance has been promised since 2013. That year Alice Munro won the Nobel, Lydia Davis won the Booker…
Manhattan transfer
Good historical fiction takes more than research. Henry James once said that writers needed to shed everything that made them…
