Click here to read my review in The Spectator of the longest, trickiest novel I read last year.
László Krasznahorkai: Baron Wenckheim’s Homecoming
Jenny Offill: Weather
Click here to read my review in The Times of Jenny Offill’s new novel Weather. Her previous novel Dept. of Speculation was one of my favourites of its year—will Weather stack up?
Eimear McBride: Strange Hotel
Click here to read my review in The Times of Eimear McBride’s new novel Strange Hotel, which I rather liked, despite the pay-off line where I call it “the most interesting boring book of the year.”
Brexit and the British Novel
Click here to read my feature for the Penguin Books website on Brexit and how it has shaped British novels in recent years.
Marina Kemp: Nightingale
Click here to read my review in The Times of Marina Kemp’s bold, lively and – frankly – fun debut novel.
Georges Simenon and Maigret
I wrote about Georges Simenon and the Maigret books for the Penguin Books website. Simenon’s productivity was legendary: he wrote most of his novels in 10 or 11 days, and it’s reported that Alfred Hitchcock once rang him only to be told that Simenon was incommunicado, writing a new book. “That’s all right,” replied Hitchcock. “I’ll wait.”
J. M. Coetzee: The Death of Jesus
Click here to read my review in The Times of the concluding part of J. M. Coetzee’s trilogy about a boy and his ‘parents’ in a mysterious world both like and unlike our own. Title contains spoilers.
Sarah Hall: Sudden Traveller
Click here to read my review in The Spectator of Sarah Hall’s sexy and cerebral new collection of stories Sudden Traveller.
Open Book: John Self speaks
If you’ve ever wondered what I sound like, it’s your lucky day! Click here to listen to me discuss some books of the year with podcasters Olivia Bright and Carrie Plitt on BBC Radio 4’s Open Book, hosted by Mariella Frostrup.
Diana Athill: Don’t Look at Me Like That
Click here to read my review of highly regarded memoirist and editor Diana Athill’s only novel, first published in 1967 and now reissued.
