Will Self

Ali Smith’s (2nd) pick for her Goldsmiths Prize fantasy winner: ‘Gray’s books have transformed the possibilities of the novel, and 1982, Janine, a book about a man in a room for one night up against the question of whether to live or not is one of his most powerful, a perfecting of his combination of anarchy, politeness and lyricism, his philosophical understanding of the epic quotidian and his good-natured existentialism. It remakes the novel – and it’s never going to not be a really unputdownable read.’