In the world of the Booker Prizes this week: We meet the publisher who has won the Booker three times; everything you need to know about the film adaptation of Eileen; and we celebrate Ann Schlee
I’d love to see a lit fiction hub on Substack. Most fiction here is speculative, but how about literary? Any chance you might start doing more to create a lit fiction writer community here? I’d be the first to subscribe :)
"Prophet Song" (please click more and read the passage) by Paul Lynch won the Booker prize last week. He is a fine writer. And is a fine writer in this book, though I find his writing Superior in Red sky Morning where the prose blew me away. I believe the book won because it's an excellent book, but more because it's timely.
"She stands in line before the Camac Bridge waiting for the ID check, watching the people come and go across no-man’s land with wheelbarrows and trolleys and baggage, the rebels are demanding to search the merchandise of the people returning from the regime’s side, everything has to be unpacked, an elderly woman with jet black hair throws up her hands and begins to shout at two rebels who insist at her bag, she won’t let go until a soldier tears the bag from her hands and a chicken comes feathering out while the woman flaps after it along the road.
Eilish holds out her ID to eyes hidden behind sunglasses, a toneless voice asking why she is crossing, the sound of a warplane overhead. She reads the sign hung on the traffic lights warning of snipers and moves into hurry as she crosses the bridge, looking ahead to the windows of the tower block watching down from the far junction, this feeling of standing before some authority that declares life and death by fiat."
I’d love to see a lit fiction hub on Substack. Most fiction here is speculative, but how about literary? Any chance you might start doing more to create a lit fiction writer community here? I’d be the first to subscribe :)
"Prophet Song" (please click more and read the passage) by Paul Lynch won the Booker prize last week. He is a fine writer. And is a fine writer in this book, though I find his writing Superior in Red sky Morning where the prose blew me away. I believe the book won because it's an excellent book, but more because it's timely.
"She stands in line before the Camac Bridge waiting for the ID check, watching the people come and go across no-man’s land with wheelbarrows and trolleys and baggage, the rebels are demanding to search the merchandise of the people returning from the regime’s side, everything has to be unpacked, an elderly woman with jet black hair throws up her hands and begins to shout at two rebels who insist at her bag, she won’t let go until a soldier tears the bag from her hands and a chicken comes feathering out while the woman flaps after it along the road.
Eilish holds out her ID to eyes hidden behind sunglasses, a toneless voice asking why she is crossing, the sound of a warplane overhead. She reads the sign hung on the traffic lights warning of snipers and moves into hurry as she crosses the bridge, looking ahead to the windows of the tower block watching down from the far junction, this feeling of standing before some authority that declares life and death by fiat."
Start reading this book for free: https://a.co/0dyg2Kd