A nice mix of non-fiction and fiction.
Featuring: Christopher Buehlman, D.K. Furutani, Luke Goebel, Gareth Hanrahan, Jordan Harper, Patrick Radden Keefe, Barbara J. Keys, John Lanchester, Jill Lepore, Roshan Sethi, Walter Stahr, David Thomson
John Lanchester
New Books (August)
Featuring: Joe Abercrombie, Luke Arnold, Hari Conner, Alan Davies, Laurie Elizabeth Flynn, Guy Haley, Clive Hamilton, Kristin Hannah, Essa Hansen, James Hibberd, Darius Hinks, Iris Johansen, Laura Lam, John Lanchester, Jessica J. Lee, Katie Lowe, Elizabeth May, Elizabeth McCracken, Claire North, Mareike Ohlberg, Kim Stanley Robinson, Simon Stephenson, Christina Sweeney-Baird, Adrian Tchaikovsky, Vendela Vida, K.S. Villoso, Dawnie Walton, Aliya Whiteley (x2)
Quick Review: REALITY, AND OTHER STORIES by John Lanchester (Faber)
An intriguing collection of speculative, creepy stories
Household gizmos with a mind of their own.
Constant cold calls from unknown numbers.
And the creeping suspicion that none of this is real.
Reality, and Other Stories is a gathering of deliciously chilling entertainments – stories to be read as the evenings draw in and the days are haunted by all the ghastly schlock, uncanny technologies and absurd horrors of modern life.
I’ve always wanted to read more of John Lanchester’s work. I’ve been slowly acquiring many of his novels — for example, Fragrant Harbour and The Wall — but keep forgetting that I have them on my Kindle. I was lucky enough to get a DRC of this short story collection, and decided to dive right in. Initially, I’d intended to read a story every so often, between novels, but I ended up reading all of them in just a couple of sittings. I really enjoyed this collection. Continue reading
Upcoming: THE WALL by John Lanchester (W.W. Norton/Faber)
When I read the synopsis for John Lanchester‘s next novel, The Wall, my mind immediately went to the doomsday predictions for the UK post-Brexit. I’m actually surprised how few novels I’ve read, or read/heard about have made me think of Brexit and the referendum’s fall-out. The synopsis suggests a country that is living with the mentality of those who voted Leave (despite all of our warnings that it would be a disaster). It will be really interesting to see how this novel shapes up. Check out the synopsis:
Kavanagh begins his life patrolling the Wall. If he’s lucky, if nothing goes wrong, he only has two years of this, 729 more nights.
The best thing that can happen is that he survives and gets off the Wall and never has to spend another day of his life anywhere near it. He longs for this to be over; longs to be somewhere else.
He will soon find out what Defenders do and who the Others are. Along with the rest of his squad, he will endure cold and fear day after day, night after night. But somewhere, in the dark cave of his mind, he thinks: wouldn’t it be interesting if something did happen, if they came, if you had to fight for your life?
John Lanchester’s thrilling, hypnotic new novel is about why the young are right to hate the old. It’s about a broken world you will recognise as your own — and about what might be found when all is lost.
Lanchester is also the critically-acclaimed author of Capital and Fragrant Harbour (the latter of which I have and will hopefully be reading soon). Due to be published by W.W. Norton in North America (March 5th) and Faber in the UK (January 17th), I’m really looking forward to reading The Wall.
Civilian Reader 