The New York Times Book Review excerpts Hilary Mantel’s new collection, The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher, which has generated controversy in England over the title story. Here is Thatcher, seen through the eyes of the story’s would-be assassin: “High heels on the mossy path. Tippy-tap. Toddle on. She’s making efforts, but getting nowhere very fast. The bag on the arm, slung like a shield. The tailored suit just as I have foreseen, the pussycat bow, a long loop of pearls, and—a new touch—big goggle glasses. Shading her, no doubt, from the trials of the afternoon. Hand extended, she is moving along the line. Now that we are here at last, there is all the time in the world.”
The 2014 Online Journalism Awards recognize ProPublica, the Center for Public Integrity, and Susie Cagle’s “illustrated commentary” on San Francisco’s class war.
In a podcast for the Guardian, David Mitchell talks about his latest novel, The Bone Clocks—including “why familiar faces from his earlier fiction keep popping up again, how he gets closer to his characters in the shower,” and “the glories of ‘the flotation tank novel.’” James Camp reviewed the book in our latest issue.
Last weekend, Printed Matter sponsored the New York Art Book Fair at PS1 in Long Island City, Queens: three floors of publishers, artists, and art books from all over the world. Buzzfeed has some pictures.
Tickets to Benjamin Kunkel’s play, Buzz, are now on sale. The production opens in previews on October 18, and will run until November 22.
Following ongoing accusations, Newsweek has added plagiarism warnings to columns by Fareed Zakaria. Zakaria’s current employers, CNN and The Washington Post, dismiss the accusations; CNN President Jeff Zucker insisted that they “continue to have complete faith in Fareed.”
Yesterday, Jennifer Weiner encouraged her Twitter followers to “BELIEVE IN WOMEN AS AUTHORS, NOT JUST STENOGRAPHERS OF THEIR OWN LIVES.”