London Review Bookshop Podcast

Rebecca Solnit, a prolific writer and activist, joins investigative journalist Carole Cadwalladr, known for her groundbreaking work on the Cambridge Analytica scandal. They discuss the interconnections between political turbulence, grassroots movements, and tech culture. Solnit's latest essay collection dives into the complex dynamics of gender and societal power, while both guests emphasize the importance of individual agency in effecting change. They critique the influence of Silicon Valley on culture and call for authentic human connections amidst rising technology.

Before she became a well-known novelist, Margaret Atwood was an award-winning poet. She has been publishing poetry for more than 60 years, from the self-published, hand-set Double Persephone in 1961 to its follow up The Circle Game which won the Governor General’s Award, to her latest, critically-acclaimed collection Dearly in 2020. Paper Boat (Chatto & Windus) draws on that impressive body of work, and expands on it with poems previously uncollected, revealing an artist who has somehow always managed to be at the height of her powers, and to have her finger on every pulse.Atwood appeared at Conway Hall to discuss her work with poet, editor and critic Sarah Howe. They were joined by poets Amy Key and Rachel Long who read poems from Paper Boat throughout the evening. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

‘Every morning, she wakes up to the 18th of November. She no longer expects to wake up to the 19th of November, and she no longer remembers the 17th of November as if it were yesterday.’Solvej Balle’s septology On the Calculation of Volume (Faber), thirty years in the making, was published in Danish by the author’s own press to huge and universal acclaim: ‘Absolutely, absolutely incredible’ (Karl Ove Knausgaard); ‘Unforgettable’ (Hernan Díaz); ‘A total explosion’ (Nicole Krauss). Now Faber has brought the first two volumes of her masterpiece to an anglophone readership in a vibrant translation by Barbara J. Haveland, the first of which has been nominated for this year’s International Booker Prize.Balle was joined in conversation by novelist and critic Chris Power.Get the books: https://www.londonreviewbookshop.co.uk/stock/on-the-calculation-of-volume-i-absolutely-absolutely-incredible.-knausgard-solvej-balleFind more events at the Bookshop: https://lrb.me/eventspod Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Gliff, the latest novel from Ali Smith, forms the first part of a duology; its title, the Scots word for a glimpse or shock, will be echoed but not replicated in next year’s Glyph. In a dystopian, Kafkaesque fictional lanscape, Smith explores how we make meaning and are made by it, and what it would actually mean for the next generation to sort out our increasingly toxic world.Smith read from the novel and was in conversation with artist and filmmaker Sarah Wood.Find more events at the Bookshop: https://lrb.me/eventspodGet the book: https://www.londonreviewbookshop.co.uk/stock/gliff-ali-smith Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Josh Cohen’s new book, All the Rage (Granta), explores anger, in all its permutations - social media arguments, political divides, road rage, passive aggression – in the words of Deborah Levy, ‘brilliantly investigating what it is when we are enraged’. What should we make of our anger; to what use can we put it? Cohen’s previous books include Not Working and The Private Life. He was in conversation with the sociologist and political economist William Davies, whose most recent book is Nervous States: How Feeling Took Over the World. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In The Dead of Winter, Sarah Clegg – author of the HWA Crown Award-shortlisted Woman’s Lore - looks behind the tinsel and the turkey to explore the darker traditions of the Christmas season. At wassails, hoodenings and winter gatherings, attended by ghastly, grinning horses, snatching monsters and mysterious visitors, we discover how these customs and rituals originated and how they changed through the centuries, and ask ourselves: if we can't keep the darkness entirely at bay, might it be fun to let a little in?She was joined in conversation about all this and more with Ronald Hutton, historian, folklorist and professor of history at Bristol University.Find more events at the Bookshop: https://lrb.me/eventspodGet the book: https://www.londonreviewbookshop.co.uk/stock/the-dead-of-winter-the-demons-witches-and-ghosts-of-christmas-sarah-clegg Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Eileen Myles reads from their first collection of poetry since 2018’s Evolution. The poems in a “Working Life” evoke the joy and unease in the quotidian, moving ‘with call and response between perception and thought’, as Camille Roy writes in Brooklyn Rail magazine.Myles is in conversation with journalist and activist Amelia Abraham, whose Queer Intentions was published by Picador in 2020. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Isabelle Baafi, winner of the Somerset Maugham Award for her pamphlet Ripe, constructs her debut collection Chaotic Good (Faber) around the story of an escape from a toxic marriage. ‘Chaotic Good is a debut of amazing endurance,’ writes poet Will Harris. ‘Its formal pressures create a kind of kaleidoscopic intensity that – with each turn of the chamber – brings newly beautiful and painful shapes into focus.’Isabelle Baafi read from her work in the company of Lavinia Greenlaw, whose most recent book is the essay collection The Vast Extent.Find more events a the Bookshop: https://lrb.me/eventspod Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In Poor Artists (Particular Books) Zarina Muhammad and Gabrielle de la Puente (AKA The White Pube), explore the bizarre world of contemporary art through their protagonist Quest Talukdar. In surreal encounters with other artists, Quest learns profound truths about money and power, and must decide whether she cares more about success or staying true to herself. Blending storytelling with dialogue from anonymised interviews with artists and art workers – including a Turner Prize winner or two, a few ghosts, a Venice Biennale fraudster and a communist messiah – Poor Artists is a unique portrayal of the emotional, existential and financial experience of artists today. Joining them in conversation was Olivia Sudjic (Asylum Road, Sympathy). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Third Realm is the next instalment of the series Karl Ove Knausgaard began with The Morning Star and continued in The Wolves of Eternity; like its two precursors, it is a breathtaking exploration of ordinary lives on the cusp of irrevocable change, ‘re-enchanting the cosmos with those beguiling secrets science had stolen from it’ (in the words of The Guardian).Knausgaard read from The Third Realm and was joined in conversation about its mysteries and complexities by Helen Charman, author of Mother State.Find more events at the Bookshop: https://lrb.me/eventspod Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.