Peter Straus
Ernest Competition
SOME BOOKS ARE worth the wait. When his current publisher was not even a gleam in anyone's eye, Tobias Wolff's UK editor, Liz Calder, on the basis of some extraordinary short stories, Hunters in the Snow, commissioned his first novel. Around twenty years later, and having moved from Cape to help found Bloomsbury, she publishes it. Old School is a beautifully written and utterly captivating novel, which is what one would expect from a literary master such as Tobias Wolff.
The unnamed narrator looks back from the vantage point of adulthood to tell the story of hs years at a New England prep school at the beginning of the 1960s. The school has a tradition for things literary so it is no wonder that the headmaster has studied with Robert
Sign Up to our newsletter
Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.@Lit_Review
Follow Literary Review on Twitter
'Catastrophe' as a category 'is too large and miscellaneous ... if there is a "correct" response to an earthquake, it is unlikely to have much in common with the "correct" response to an epidemic'.
Jonathan Sumption on Niall Ferguson's 'Doom'.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/prime-minister-versus-pathogen
'He has been arrested in the past and upon his release, he has cheerfully persisted in his activism. His courage is exemplary.’
@lucyjpop investigates Zargana, the renowned Burmese satirist recently arrested as part of a widespread military crackdown.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/zargana-2
A new biography of the archaeologist and explorer Charles Masson provides a 'tale of intrigue, espionage, blackmail, disguise, rebellion, treasure and the discovery of lost civilisations', says @BijanOmrani.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/our-man-in-kabul