for the new(ish) April issue of Literary Review I commissioned a number of pieces, including Deborah Levy on Bowie, Rosa Lyster on creative non-fiction, Jon Savage on Pulp, mike harrison on Oyamada, Richard Williams on Kind of Blue, Chris Power on HGarner
literaryreview.co.uk/current-issue/…

Several years after abandoning The Trial, Kafka was staying at a hotel where he was mistakenly called Josef K

Happy birthday Samuel Beckett, who left me forever haunted by this short story

I love Helen Garner and this, by Chris Power in Literary Review, is excellent.

I wrote about Helen Garner’s stellar novella, The Children’s Bach, for Literary Review

The London Review of Books asked me to read Les Rougon-Macquart. I agreed, thinking it would be a nice little project, brief.

Two years later, I tell you all about it.

Zola is now my father.

lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v46/…

Love that Serra was a painter until he saw Las Meninas, realized he couldn't top it and threw all his stuff into a river

Yes, Kafka

“Our children are dying, we are dying. What are you doing, where is the world?”

Amid starvation and desperation in Gaza, Jomana Karadsheh Scott reports on the deaths of 12 people as they attempted to reach aid dropped into the sea.

Producer: @ssirgany

In June I’ll be talking to Rachel Cusk at an Intelligence Squared event in London about her extraordinary and devastating novel Parade. Tickets: eventbrite.co.uk/e/rachel-cusk-…

Translating Mathias Énard's Déserter

From Kafka’s diary. Never gets old.

Kafka getting his kicks where he can find them

Kafka, book lover

My review of Until August, by Gabriel García Márquez, is in the FT Weekend ft.com/content/f9bd3e…

1/ I’m an Israeli academic. My community is too silent about the ongoing war in Gaza. Here is how I see things based on reading hundreds of articles and watching thousands of videos and images about the war. This tweet chain contains my conclusions as a sort of executive summary.

At Hay Festival this year I’ll be in conversation, in calendar order, with Anne Enright, Åsne Seierstad, amor towles and James Blunt. Can’t wait. Full programme here: hayfestival.com/m-199-hay-fest…