London Review Bookshop Podcasts

Niven Govinden’s sixth novel Diary of a Film (Dialogue) follows an unnamed director through the streets of an Italian town as he muses on cinema, queer love and the creative process; on its hardback publication, during first lockdown, the Financial Times described it as ‘a wise and skilfully controlled novel, which can be read in an afternoon, but which radiates in the mind for much longer.’ To celebrate the novel’s release in paperback, Govinden talks to Gareth Evans, the Whitechapel Art Gallery’s Moving Image curator. Find our upcoming events, online and in-person, here: lrb.me/upcomingevents Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On 29 November 2019 Usman Khan murdered Saskia Jones and Jack Merritt at Fishmongers’ Hall in London. Recently released from prison after serving a sentence for terrorism-related offences, Khan was attending an event to mark the anniversary of a writing course he had attended while in prison. Novelist Preti Taneja had been one of his tutors. In Aftermath (And Other Stories), described by Nikesh Shukla as ‘a masterclass work of literary brilliance’, Taneja has created from the horrific events of that day a searing lament, interrogating the language of terror, trauma and grief, a powerful indictment of the prison system and an equally powerful plea for its abolition. She was in conversation with Lola Olufemi, author of Feminism, Interrupted and Experiments in Imagining Otherwise. Find our upcoming events, online and in-person, here: lrb.me/upcomingevents Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Although born 20 years after Gwen John’s death, Celia Paul has always felt a strong affinity with the older artist. In Letters to Gwen John (Cape), described by Julia Blackburn as ‘A miraculous, door-opening book’, Paul has created in words and images an imaginary correspondence, and a spell-binding portrait of two women artists creating work against the grain, and entirely on their own terms. Paul talks about the book with the polymathic Olivia Laing, whose latest book is Everybody (Picador). Find out about our upcoming event, online and in person: lrb.me/lrbevents Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In her latest book Disorder: Hard Times in the 21st Century (Oxford) Helen Thompson argues that while the earthquake that was the Covid-19 pandemic profoundly shocked the world order, the fault lines along which it operated had been building for decades. Her story begins with the energy crises of the 1970s, takes in the financial crash of 2008 before leading us to our current state of unease, disorder and instability. Thompson is in conversation with Ann Pettifor, economist and author of The Production of Money and The Case for the Green New Deal. Find our upcoming events, online and in-person, here: lrb.me/upcomingevents Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

After twenty years novelist and essayist Pankaj Mishra makes a triumphant return to fiction. Described by Amit Chaudhuri as ‘his best work yet’ and by Neel Mukherjee as ‘unforgettable’, Run and Hide (Hutchinson Heinemann) explores, through the lives of three friends riding the high tide of India’s boom years, the implications and human costs of the thirst for wealth and power. Mishra, a regular contributor to the LRB, was in conversation with Lisa Appignanesi. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Central to this modern myth is the ‘savage creative storm’ of 2-23 February 1922, when Rilke wrote the Sonnets to Orpheus and completed the Duino Elegies in less than three weeks. 100 years on from its conclusion, the poet and critic Ange Mlinko discusses Rilke, the cult of Orpheus and intense productivity with Don Paterson, whose versions of the Sonnets to Orpheus were published by Faber (and the LRB) in 2006, and the writer and artist Edmund de Waal, for whom the work of Rilke has been a constant touchstone. Find our upcoming digital and in-person events here: https://lrb.me/lrbevents Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Fernanda Melchor first came to the attention of the English-speaking world with 'Hurricane Season', a tale of murder in a lawless Mexican village, described by Ben Lerner as ‘Brutal, relentless, beautiful, fugal’. In 'Paradais' she continues her exploration of violence, class and misogyny with a chilling story of two misfit teenagers living in a luxury housing complex, haunted by macabre fantasies of escape. Melchor discusses her work with Nicole Flattery. Find our upcoming digital and in-person events here: https://lrb.me/lrbevents Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

‘How do you write after Ulysses?’ asked the twice Booker-nominated novelist Tom McCarthy, author of C, Satin Island and most recently The Making of Incarnation, in the LRB in 2014. He reflects on working in Ulysses’s wake – as we all must – with the Turner Prize-winning artist Susan Philipsz, whose past installations have drawn extensively on Joyce’s writing (and interest in music). She also sings live. Chaired by the LRB's Head of Special Projects, Sam Kinchin-Smith. Presented in partnership with Shakespeare and Company. Photo credits: Nicole Strasser and Franziska Sinn. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Lisa Appignanesi, Benjamin Burgis, Janan Ganesh and James Wolcott on ‘A Hitch in Time’, chaired by David Runciman Christopher Hitchens was a star writer wherever he wrote; the London Review of Books, to which he contributed sixty pieces over two decades, was no exception. A Hitch in Time, published in December to mark the tenth anniversary of his death, collected 20 of the best in a selection James Wolcott describes, in his introduction, as ‘restorative, an extended spa treatment that stretches tired brains and unkinks the usual habitual responses where Hitchens is concerned.’ Wolcott discussed what he means – the pre-9/11 ‘Hitch in time’ that the collection recaptures – with Benjamin Burgis, author of Christopher Hitchens: What He Got Right, How He Went Wrong, and Why He Still Matters, along with the writer and campaigner Lisa Appignanesi, the FT columnist Janan Ganesh, and the LRB’s David Runciman. Part of our ongoing ‘Revivalism’ series of conversations focussing on literary revivals and heroes of the LRB

With How Should a Person Be? Sheila Heti merrily and unforgettably extended our notions of what a novel might or ought to contain. In Pure Colour (Harvill Secker), brilliantly described by Kirkus Reviews as ‘that rarest of novels—as alien as a moon rock and every bit as wondrous,’ she continues her extraordinary project of expanding our minds to where they ought to be. Heti was in conversation about that project with Merve Emre, associate professor of English at the University of Oxford. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In his long essay Losers (Peninsula) psychoanalyst and critic Josh Cohen examines, with characteristic wit and acuity, what our culture loses by undervaluing what Elizabeth Bishop famously called ‘the art of losing.’ Drawing on a wide range of sources and inspirations from mythology, psychology and literature, including Freud, Winnicott, Beckett, Kafka, Thomas Bernard and Robert Walser, Cohen was in conversation with novelist and essayist Deborah Levy, who has written of Losers ‘With compassion, skill and verve, Josh Cohen eloquently dismantles societal and personal delusions about winning and losing.’ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Professor of Sociology at University College London, argues in Speculative Communities (Chicago) that speculation is no longer confined to the sphere of finance, but has, through virtual marketplaces, new social media and dating apps, become an integral part of the most intimate realms of our lives. Komporozos-Athanasiou will be in conversation with economist Grace Blakeley, author of Stolen: How to Save the World from Financialisation, James Bridle, author of New Dark Age, and Will Davies, Reader in Political Economy at Goldsmiths and author of Nervous States. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Vron Ware’s take on what it means to be English has, thankfully, little time for nostalgic visions of a post-Brexit rural paradise. In Return of a Native (Repeater Books) and with a sly nod to Thomas Hardy, she revisits her home turf in Hampshire to explore what it means to see the world from a small place. Her stories of violence and resistance, growth and destruction encompass deep time, colonial histories and global capitalism. Vron Ware, visiting professor in the Gender Studies department at London School of Economics, was in conversation about her work with Hazel Carby, author of Imperial Intimacies. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It’s clear that the Covid pandemic has changed the way we need to think about public health, social justice, the economy and a good deal else besides. Michael Rosen, who became gravely ill with the disease, and whose bibliography is both too long and too impressive to list here, and Rachel Clarke, a journalist who became a doctor and has been heroically working on the frontline, were in conversation about the pandemic. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2021’s Nobel Laureate in Literature Abdulrazak Gurnah is in conversation about his work with author Kamila Shamsie. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Diane Di Prima began writing her revolutionary ‘Letters’ in 1968, conjuring a potent blend of utopian visions, ecological urgency and spiritual insight. By turns a manifesto for breaking free, a manual for street protest and a feminist broadside, these poems are as relevant to the convulsions and crises of today as they were fifty years ago. To launch an expanded 50th anniversary edition of Revolutionary Letters from Silver Press our event featured readings by Helen Charman, CA Conrad and Mira Mattar and a conversation about Di Prima with Sophie Lewis, Francesca Wade and Sarah Shin. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Oppositions collects Mary Gaitskill’s essays of 30 years; taking in subjects as diverse as Nabokov, horse-riding and the Book of Revelation, they’re as sharp and incisive as her fiction. Gaitskill is in conversation about the book with Octavia Bright, author and host of the ‘Literary Friction’ podcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In ​The Woman Who Buried Herself (Hazel Press) Alys Fowler takes us deeper and deeper into, and under the soil, until there is no longer a separation. This story emerged like a fairy tale told to her during long hours daydreaming whilst weeding, in a sense it is her garden’s own tale which ventures into mythic realms, exploring the seen and unseen, mysteries of science, the animal and the organic in consciousness of life and love.Fowler was reading from the book and in discussion with Bee Wilson, LRB contributor and the author of the recent The Way We Eat Now (Harpercollins). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Towards the end of the 19th century Iain Sinclair’s great-grandfather Arthur made an accident-prone and largely disastrous colonial expedition to Peru. In his latest book, accompanied by his daughter, Iain Sinclair abandons his familiar London territory to follow in his ancestor’s footsteps, perhaps also hoping to eclipse his shadow. What he finds makes harrowing but essential reading in a story of exploitation, colonialism and environmental devastation. Sinclair was in conversation about his journey with Gareth Evans, curator of film at the Whitechapel Gallery. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dante’s Purgatorio is as much an allegory of spiritual transformation as it is one of psychological rebirth, personal healing, and self-transcendence. Combining a graceful lyricism with decades of study, D.M. Black’s translation and commentary reveal new dimensions in Dante’s many portraits of people trying to find their way through life and what comes after. This fresh, bilingual edition of Purgatoriowas published on September 14th 2021, the 700th anniversary of Dante’s death. Black is in conversation with writer and translator Robert Chandler and psychoanalyst Giovanna di Ceglie. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.