Melodrama, biography, cold war thriller, drug memoir, essay in fragments, mystery – ​Fassbinder Thousands of Mirrors is cult critic Ian Penman’s long awaited first original book, a kaleidoscopic study of the late West German film maker Rainer Werner Fassbinder (1945–1982). Written quickly under a self-imposed deadline in the spirit of Fassbinder himself, who would often get films made in a matter of weeks or months, ​Fassbinder Thousands of Mirrors presents the filmmaker as a pivotal figure in the late 1970s moment between late modernism and the advent of postmodernism and the digital revolution. Penman was joined in conversation by Adam Mars-Jones.Buy a copy of Fassbinder Thousands of Mirrors: lrb.me/fassbinderFind more events at the Bookshop: lrb.me/eventspod Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

K Patrick’s Mrs. S is one of the most eagerly awaited debuts of the year, having already secured for its author a spot on the Granta Best of Young British Novelists list. A queer romance set in the staffroom of an elite English boarding school, Lillian Fishman has described it as ‘a voluptuous performance in the art of withholding’. Patrick was in conversation with editor and writer Amelia Abraham, whose most recent book, Queer Intentions (Macmillan) was nominated for a Polari First Book award in 2020. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

M. John Harrison has produced one of the greatest bodies of fiction of any living British author, encompassing space opera, speculative fiction, fantasy, magical and literary realism. Wish I Was Here is his first work of memoir – an ‘anti-memoir’ – written in his mid-seventies with aphoristic daring and trademark originality and style, fresh after winning the Goldsmiths Prize in 2020 for The Sunken Land Begins to Rise Again. Harrison was joined in conversation with writer and critic Jennifer Hodgson.Find more events at the Bookshop: lrb.me/eventspod Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In The Plague (Fitzcarraldo) Jacqueline Rose who has, in the words of Edward Said ‘no peer among critics of her generation’ uses the recent experience of the Covid pandemic, the war in Ukraine and the writings of Simone Weil to investigate how we might learn to live with death when it intrudes more closely than we might like on our lived experience. Rose was in conversation about life and death with James Butler, contributing editor at the LRB. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This Ragged Grace tells the story of Octavia Bright’s journey through recovery from alcohol addiction, and the parallel story of her father’s descent into Alzheimer’s. Looking back over this time, each of the seven chapters explores the feelings and experiences of the corresponding year of her recovery, tracing the shift in emotion and understanding that comes with the deepening connection to this new way of life. Bright was joined in conversation by Olivia Laing, author of Everybody.Find more events at the Bookshop: lrb.me/eventspodBuy a copy of This Ragged Grace: lrb.me/thisraggedgrace Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Maureen McLane’s poetry has been praised for its deftness, intelligence and grace under extreme pressure. Her new collection, the aptly named What You Want, draws on these strengths to produce something remarkable and new.In a rare UK appearance, she reads from her work and talks to Will Harris, who also reads from his new collection Brother Poem (Granta). Harris has won the Forward Prizes for Best Single Poem and Best First Collection (for his debut, 2019's RENDANG), and more importantly, the LRB Bookshop Poetry Pamphlet Pick of the Year for 2016. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Novelist, essayist and playwright Deborah Levy read from and spoke about her novel August Blue, a mesmerising story of how identities, coalesce, collide and collapse. She was joined in conversation about August Blue with the psychoanalyst Stephen Grosz, author of The Examined Life.Find more events at the Bookshop: lrb.me/eventspodBuy a copy of August Blue: lrb.me/augustbluepod Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Marriage has been an institution for centuries but why this highly contested and ancient practice has remained relevant to so many is by no means certain. What are we really talking about when we talk about marriage? And what are we really doing when we say, 'I do'? In On Marriage (Hamish Hamilton), Devorah Baum draws on philosophy, film, fiction, comedy, psychoanalysis, music and poetry, to consider the marriage plot. Baum was in conversation with Hisham Matar. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When novelist and cultural critic Lynne Tillman’s mother became ill with the rare condition of normal pressure hydrocephalus she became entirely dependent on Lynne, her sisters and other caregivers, reversing the normal roles of parent and child. In Mothercare, Tillman describes, without flinching, the unexpected, heartbreaking, and anxious eleven years of caring for a sick parent. Tillman was joined by Michael Bracewell, author of Unfinished Business.Find more events at the Bookshop website: lrb.me/eventspodBuy a copy of Mothercare: lrb.me/mothercare Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Claudia Rankine’s Plot, an early work published for the first time in the UK this month, is a meditation on pregnancy and the changes it heralds: the potential bodily cost, the loss of self, the sense of impending stasis. It is a genre-defying text, a collection of fragments, dreams and conversations with all of the hallmarks of Rankine’s subsequent work, Citizen, Don’t Let Me Be Lonely and Just Us. Rankine will be in discussion with Nicola Rollock, author of The Racial Code. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.