Back in the early days of his career, while working as an in-house reader at publisher Jonathan Cape, James Lasdun passed on a novel by an unknown author named “Jane Somers.” Unfortunately for him, “Jane Somers” turned out to be Doris Lessing, and the incident was quickly turned into a cautionary tale for publishers, and a major embarrassment for Lasdun. After decades of avoiding Lessing’s writing, Lasdun recounts how the incident has haunted him through the years—and how he has finally come around to reading her.
According to the New Republic, the literary equivalent of the hip-hop West Coast/East Coast beef is on: The Los Angeles Review of Books has declared war against the New York Review of Books over a review of Rachel Kushner’s novel The Flamethrowers.
James Surowiecki reflects on what the demise of the Nook means for the future of Barnes and Noble.
Jim Crace, Tash Aw, Colum McCann, Ruth Ozeki, Colm Toibin and Jhumpa Lahiri are among the thirteen authors longlisted for this year’s Man Booker Prize, which comes with a $58,000 bursary. To be eligible, the author must be writing in English, and a citizen of the British Commonwealth, the Republic of Ireland, or Zimbabwe. The Man Booker shortlist will be released in September, and the winner will be announced this October.
Jeffrey Tambor—who you might know as George Bluth, senior on Arrested Development—is now a part owner of Los Angeles indie bookshop Skylight Books.
Chuck Palahnuik has confirmed that he’s working on a sequel to Fight Club—and that it’s going to be a graphic novel. The author announced the news at a Comic Con panel last Friday, and elaborated on it in a recent email: “It will likely be a series of books that update the story ten years after the seeming end of Tyler Durden. Nowadays, Tyler is telling the story, lurking inside Jack, and ready to launch a come-back. Jack is oblivious. Marla is bored. Their marriage has run aground on the rocky coastline of middle-aged suburban boredom. It’s only when their little boy disappears, kidnapped by Tyler, that Jack is dragged back into the world of Mayhem.”
