At The Rumpus, Sean Carman interviews Year in Reading alum Laura van den Berg, whose new novel, The Isle of Youth, came out last week. (ICYMI, Nathan Huffstutter reviewed The Isle of Youth for The Millions).
Magical Atmospheres
Rereading
"I’ve come to understand that I’ll rarely experience that first rush of discovery again, and perhaps that’s the problem with re-reading. It reminds us both of where we’ve been and where we can’t go again." Sarah Seltzer wonders why do we reread books as children but not as adults? Pair with Lisa Levy's essay on "The Pleasures and Perils of Rereading."
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Digital Death
"In its clumsy, ad hoc way, Facebook has brought death back into the public sphere in a way death hasn’t been for more than 100 years." To celebrate Facebook's 10th birthday, The Missouri Review has unlocked its Alexander Landfair essay on how we deal with death on Facebook. For another look at Facebook, read our essay on how the timeline changes the way we tell stories.
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Raising Children and Writing Books
"Quite possibly I’m a narrower, nastier and less morally responsible writer now than I was the day before my son was born. I certainly hope so." We know Father's Day was over a week ago, but here's a belated link to a refreshingly cliché-free New York Times Bookends piece on parenting and writing, featuring James Parker and Mohsin Hamid.
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El Presidente
Following the death of Hugo Chavez, the publishing industry is gearing up to provide retrospectives of his life. At the Christian Science Monitor, Whitney Eulich reviews Comandante, a book that claims Chavez was “this close” to becoming a dictator.
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Station Eleven Preview
A. A. Knopf posted the first chapter of our own Emily St. John Mandel's new novel, Station Eleven, on Scribd for all to see and enjoy.
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Next Up, Denmark
After waking us up to their favorite Brazilian novelists, the editorial board at Granta is turning its gaze to Norway. In the first issue of Norwegian Granta, you'll find a slew of stories by illustrious contributors (among them Jennifer Egan, Roberto Bolano and Alice Munro) alongside new stories from authors native to the country. At Granta’s website, you can read an interview with the magazine's online editor, Ted Hodgkinson.
Tuesday New Release Day: Hemon; Atkinson; Disabato; O’Brien; Adrian; Vermes; Sneed; Foley; Baker
New this week: The Making of Zombie Wars by Aleksandar Hemon; A God in Ruins by Kate Atkinson; The Ghost Network by Catie Disabato; The Love Object by Edna O’Brien; The New World by Chris Adrian and Eli Horowitz; Look Who’s Back by Timur Vermes; Paris, He Said by Christine Sneed; Hugo & Rose by Bridget Foley; and Scavenger Loop by David Baker. For more on these and other new titles, check out our Great 2015 Book Preview.
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