London Review Bookshop Podcast

At the New School in New York, where Simon Critchley teaches, ‘Critchley on Tragedy’ is one of the most consistently oversubscribed courses. Now, in Tragedy, the Greeks and Us (Profile) he explains, in often surprising ways, why Greek Tragedies remain so compellingly relevant to modern times, in the way they confront us with things about ourselves we don’t want to believe, but are nevertheless true. Critchley was in conversation with Shahidha Bari, Senior Lecturer in Romanticism at Queen Mary, University of London. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In 1990, Eileen Myles chose Rosie from a litter on the street, and their connection instantly became central to the writer's life and work. During the course of their sixteen years together, Myles was madly devoted to the dog’s wellbeing, especial... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Romy Hall, the protagonist of Rachel Kushner’s latest novel *[The Mars Room][1]* (Cape), is beginning two consecutive life sentences plus six months at a women’s correctional facility. Cut off from everything she knows and loves – The Mars Room, a San Francisco strip club where she once earned a living, her seven-year-old son Jackson now in the care of her estranged mother – Romy begins a terrifying new life, detailed with humour and precision by Kushner. George Saunders writes ‘Kushner is a young master. I honestly don't know how she is able to know so much and convey all of this in such a completely entertaining and mesmerizing way.’ She read from her latest novel, and was in conversation about it with the novelist and critic Adam Thirlwell. [1]: /on-our-shelves/book/9781910702673/mars-room Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In Life Lessons (Verso) Melissa Benn explores how we need to rethink education for life. As more and more of us live and work longer than ever before, a National Education Service should, like the NHS, be the framework that ensures a life-long... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

John Berger was one of the most various of writers and men: art critic, essayist, novelist, poet and much-missed friend of the shop. In *[A Writer of Our Time][1]* (Verso), Berger’s first full biographical study, Joshua Sperling traces Berger’s... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Issue 146 of Granta is themed around the politics of feeling. Guest co-editor Devorah Baum interviews Peter Pomerantsev about his piece ‘Normalnost’, which explores how what once appeared the exclusive culture of post-Soviet Russia – the denial and... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Katherine Angel’s Daddy Issues engages with what Lauren Elkin has called ‘that forgotten figure in feminism’s critique of patriarchy: the father’, examining the place of fathers in contemporary culture and asking how the mixture of love and hatred we feel towards our fathers can be turned into a relationship that is generative rather than destructive. If we are to effectively dismantle patriarchy, Angel argues, it is vital that fathers are kept on the hook. Angel was in conversation with Sarah Moss, whose sixth novel Ghost Wall was longlisted for the Women’s Prize 2019. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Winner of the Women’s Prize for Fiction, An American Marriage (Oneworld) is a thrilling depiction of the American Dream in freefall. Barack Obama (no less) has called it ‘a moving portrayal of the effects of a wrongful conviction on a young... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Vasily Grossman’s Life and Fate, suppressed by the Soviet authorities in the 1950s but smuggled out of Russia with the help of Andrey Sakharov in the early 1980s, established Grossman’s reputation as a 20th-century Tolstoy, in particular following Robert Chandler’s magnificent 1985 translation into English. Most readers, however, do not realize that it is only the second half of a two-part work, the first half of which was published in 1952 under the title For a Just Cause. Grossman’s original and preferred title was Stalingrad – a title now restored in Chandler’s new translation. The translator writes of it ‘To me, at least, Stalingrad now seems a greater novel than Life and Fate. It is more varied, more polyphonic, closer to Grossman’s immediate experience of the war … In our translation, we have restored much of the reality edited out from previous editions, reinstating several hundred passages – some of just three or four words, some of several pages – from the typescript. Our hope is that this may allow readers to recognize the full breadth, humour and emotional generosity of another of Grossman’s masterpieces.’ Robert Chandler was in conversation with writer and arts broadcaster David Herman. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

New York's 92nd Street Y has been a home to the voices of literature for 80 years, hosting in its famed Reading Series the greatest literary artists of the 20th century and recording for posterity their appearances as part of its vast audio archive. Featuring Colm Tóibín on Elizabeth Bishop and Rachel Cusk on Katherine Anne Porter, the Writers on Recordings series invites contemporary authors to discuss the legendary voices that have meant the most to them. Each conversation features rare archival recordings and is led by Bernard Schwartz, who produces 92Y's Reading Series as director of its Unterberg Poetry Center. Now in its third year, the series is produced in collaboration with the 92nd Street Y and Queen Mary University of London. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.