“It’s a kind of reincarnation without death: all these different lives we get to live in this one body, as ourselves.”
“When I try to imagine the addresses of the houses and apartments I lived in before my grandparents kidnapped me, I can’t remember anything.”
“How rich and diverse, how complex and non-linear the history of all women is.”
“All that matters is that you are making something you love, to the best of your ability, here and now.”
An early recommendation (from none other than Ian Rankin) for Ambrose Parry’s upcoming The Way of All Flesh.
Guardian
In a short extract from his book, Notes on a Nervous Planet, Matt Haig talks about the news and about anxiety – and the relationship between the two. Narration from the audiobook, read by the author.
The Independent on the rediscovery of the brilliant Eve Babitz, author of Sex & Rage:
“She’s a comic, a poet, and a rare writer who is capable of finding the universal in the unique.”
Matt Haig was interviewed in the Observer about his new book Notes on a Nervous Planet.
“Platforms like Twitter and Instagram try to get us as emotionally and psychologically invested in them as possible. And sometimes, if you just go on Twitter and passively scroll down your feed, it depends who you follow of course, it just seems like a fireball of anger. Wherever you are on the political spectrum, you can find something within five minutes to be really, really cross or anxious about. And there’s a psychological fall-out from all that.”
Observer
David Lynch & Kristine McKenna
“This wonderful new book is the most comprehensive overview of the filmmaker’s life and career to date.”
Little White Lies
David Lynch & Kristine McKenna
“Everybody has theories about what the show is about, which is great, and it wouldn’t matter if I explained my theory. Things have harmonics, and if you’re true to an idea as much as you can be, then the harmonics will be there and they’ll be truthful even though they may be abstract.” David Lynch in the New York Times on his new book, Room to Dream.
Sara Hirakawa
New York Times
“It’s not often that an author described on his own Wikipedia page as ‘disgracefully neglected’ is awarded a €100,000 literary prize. But this is where the Irish author Mike McCormack finds himself, with Wednesday’s announcement that he has won the International Dublin literary award for his novel, Solar Bones. As someone who has hovered close to mainstream success without ever shaking off the slightly damning label of ‘writer’s writer’, he is unsurprisingly delighted.”
Sian Cain
Guardian
Here’s Oriol Miró hand-foiling a single letter of his cover type for the remarkable debut novel He Is Mine and I Have No Other by Rebecca O’Connor, out now.
“A Note on Wanting”: enjoy this early preview of Matt Haig’s Notes on a Nervous Planet, the follow-up to number one bestseller Reasons to Stay Alive. From the audiobook, read by the author.
‘An immense and moving jazz riff… The acutely immersive world of American Histories is irresistible, and these profoundly moving stories will haunt you long after you’ve finished reading.’
Colin Grant
The Guardian
Watch Robert Webb read from his bestselling memoir How Not to be a Boy at the Hay Festival: ‘I thought only wimps needed manners, and only tough guys were brave.’
Robert Webb
The Hay Festival