Before Donal Ryan made the Man Booker Prize Longlist, his debut novel, The Spinning Heart, was rejected 47 times until an intern plucked it out of the slush pile. We bet those 47 publishers are smacking themselves on the forehead right now. Pair with: Research has shown that rejection is like physical pain.
Giving J.K. Rowling a Run for Her Rejections
Please, Please, Please, Let Charles Dickens Get What He Wants
Charles Dickens becomes an honorary member of The Smiths in BBC’s Horrible Histories music video. My favorite lyric: “Whilst writing Edwin Drood, a train crash didn’t help my mood.”
This is the way the film ends
Blasphemy Alert: They’re giving the film version of August: Osage County a “less downbeat” ending. Curse you, Harvey Weinstein! Is nothing sacred? Can a woman not lament the disintegration of her life, family, and mental stability while the final lines to T.S. Eliot’s “The Hollow Men” are read by her housekeeper? Has America gone soft?
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For the Cause
As the 20th century wore on, the Strugatsky brothers grew pessimistic about Soviet Communism, eventually turning their fictional worlds from socialist utopias to dystopias. Their most famous early novel, Noon: 22nd Century bears little resemblance to later works like Hard to Be a God, which implicitly criticizes the Soviet government. At The Paris Review Daily, Ezra Glinter charts their evolution.
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Best of 2009
The Guardian asks various notable people, from Malcolm Gladwell to actor Dominic West, what their favorite books of the year are.
The Guardian’s Books of the Year
The Guardian's Books of the Year feature should get you warmed up for our forthcoming Year In Reading series. We've wrangled together some great names this year. You can whet your appetite with our 2010 installment.
Meet Jesus Makes The Shotgun Sound
What do SoCal's "vapid consumerism, gang violence, and social apathy" sound like? Jesus Makes The Shotgun Sound! Brace yourself and have a listen to their Raidohead-y latest single, "Do Not The Clothes Make The Man?!" or, if you're looking to induce epileptic fits, try the video.
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When will it be available in the USA?
> We bet those 47 publishers are smacking themselves on the forehead right now.
I bet they’re not.
So long as people get to keep their jobs they don’t care. They’d rather play it safe and reject something good than publish something that’s risky. Playing it safe is what publishing (and literally everything else in America) is all about these days. Unless you’re an internet kid who invents something like a cell phone that can emit the smell of farts at the push of a bottom. Then you’ll have fifty VCs banging on your door.