Martin Amis - GalleyCat

Martin Amis, Paul Auster & Pittacus Lore Debut on the Indie Bestseller List

Maryann Yin — Tue, 28 Aug 2012 13:44:08 +0000

We’ve collected the books debuting on Indiebound’s Indie Bestseller List for the week ending August 26, 2012. Reported by independent booksellers around the country, the list gives you a peek at the books everybody will be talking about next month.

(Debuted at #4 in Children’s Fiction Series) Lorien Legacies: The Rise of Nine by Pittacus Lore: “Until the day I met John Smith, Number Four, I’d been on the run alone, hiding and fighting to stay alive. Together, we are much more powerful. But it could only last so long before we had to separate to find the others…” (August 2012)

(Debuted at #10 in Hardcover Fiction) Lionel Asbo: State of England by Martin Amis: “Lionel Asbo, a terrifying yet weirdly loyal thug (self-named after England’s notorious Anti-Social Behaviour Order), has always looked out for his ward and nephew, the orphaned Desmond Pepperdine. He provides him with fatherly career advice (always carry a knife, for example) and is determined they should share the joys of pit bulls (fed with lots of Tabasco sauce), Internet porn, and all manner of more serious criminality. Des, on the other hand, desires nothing more than books to read and a girl to love (and to protect a family secret that could be the death of him).” (August 2012)

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Salman Rushdie to Chair PEN World Voices Festival

Jason Boog — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 12:06:01 +0000

The lineup for the PEN World Voices Festival of International Literature has been revealed. The annual event will be held in New York City from April 30th through May 6th.

Novelist and PEN World Voices chair Salman Rushdie will deliver the Arthur Miller Freedom to Write Lecture this year. The festival will feature Martin Amis, Margaret Atwood, Paul Auster, Graydon Carter, Michael Cunningham, Jennifer Egan, E.L. Doctorow, Tony Kushner, Herta Müller, Marjane Satrapi, Colson Whitehead and many other writers.

Rushdie had this statement in the release: “In an era of ever-expanding ‘screen-time,’ live/in-person readings, conversations and literary performances have never been more radical or more necessary … These live events break down the invisible walls that separate us into our own solitary computer pods and re-assert the importance of dialogue, activism, and community without borders.”

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Man Booker Prize for Fiction 2010 Longlist Announced

Jason Boog — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 15:23:00 +0000

This morning Booker Prize judges announced the 13-author “Man Booker Dozen” longlist for the 2009 edition of the £50,000 literary prize.

The judges sorted through 138 books to pick the prestigious longlist. The final list includes: Peter Carey for Parrot and Oliver in America and David Mitchell for The Thousand Autumns of Zacob de Zoet.

On Twitter, critics are already weighing in. Edward Champion wrote: “Notable Booker snubs: Martin Amis and Scarlett Thomas.” Novelist Ian Rankin wrote: “Keeping up a red-hot streak of form, yet again I have not read a single book on this year’s Booker long-list.”

The complete list follows after the jump.

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J.G. Ballard Remembered

Jason Boog — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 11:23:15 +0000

Since novelist J.G. Ballard died earlier this week, tributes have streamed in from all corners of the Internet. Among them, Channel4 had an audio interview with Martin Amis about his relationship with the author.

Novelist Neil Gaiman had this memory: “[S]omewhere around 1985, my friend Kathy Acker took me to a party/book launch/some kind of event somewhere in London and I met William Burroughs and Jim Ballard, stood there and chatted as they reminisced about London in the 1960s.”

Thom Yorke from Radiohead told Granta: “He turned a mirror on our super-Cannes world and revealed transparent dysfunctional creations playing out bit parts in a play with no author. It was a dirty job but someone had to do it.”

Finally, Omnivoracious included a visual appreciation (pictured) by author Rhys Hughes.

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Scott Moyers Won’t Be A Junior Jackal

Sarah — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 09:01:14 +0000

The Observer’s Leon Nayfakh catches up with former book editor Scott Moyers, now comfortably ensconced within the Wylie Agency as a literary agent. In the last month alone, Moyers has sold books to Doubleday, Scribner, Random House and the Penguin Press. Not a bad opening month, Neyfakh comments, though having worked as an editor at all four of those houses may have come in handy – as does working with the man famously known for poaching clients that his nickname, “The Jackal,” pretty much says it all.

Many of Moyers’ colleagues in the industry say they’re pleased for him about his new gig. But a few fear that between the personal loyalty that Moyers commands from many of the writers he’s edited, and Wylie’s formidable existing stable of talent (Philip Roth, Salman Rushdie and Martin Amis are but a few of the 600-plus author on the overall client list) and no-holds-barred recruiting tactics, the pair could create a juggernaut with the ability to raid the rosters of smaller competitors. Or, as one competitor puts it: “The question for Scott is, if you swim with the sharks, are you going to become one of the sharks?”

Not surprisingly, Moyers disagrees with any such notions. “I am not making it my business to think in those terms or be predatory,” he told Neyfakh. “There is so much good work to do. I think, like all agents, if something happens organically-if one is approached, if something makes sense, then so be it. I’m not going to be morbidly squeamish in a kind of way that doesn’t make sense. But I am going to be straightforward and open.” And he’s generally amused by any speculation about potential poaching and shark-swimming. “I thank them for their concern, for their solicitude. I’m moved by their empathy,” he said. “I ask them to give me a soul X-ray a year from now, and if I have black spots on the lungs of my soul, then, you know, they can just rush me to the infirmary and fill me up with drugs. But I somehow think it’s going to be okay.”

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Michiko Likes Fiction Again!

Sarah — Tue, 08 May 2007 09:10:09 +0000

A few months ago I did an impromptu search through the New York Times archives to find empirical evidence that lead book critic Michiko Kakutani has, indeed, developed a distaste for fiction. And for all of 2006, the only two novels she liked were Dana Spiotta‘s EAT THE DOCUMENT and Dave Eggers‘ WHAT IS THE WHAT. But 2007 must be a better year already because Michiko’s in a much better reviewing mood of late: this month alone, she’s alloted rave reviews (you know it’s a rave when “stunning” and “dazzling” are overused) to Richard Flanagan’s THE UNKNOWN TERRORIST and Michael Chabon‘s THE YIDDISH POLICEMAN’S UNION. Earlier, she had good things to say about Lionel Shriver‘s THE POST-BIRTHDAY WORLD (about “an idiosyncratic yet recognizable heroine about whom it’s impossible not to care”) Lauren Fox‘s STILL LIFE WITH HUSBAND (“a delightful new voice in American fiction”) and Martin Amis‘s THE HOUSE OF MEETINGS (“arguably his most powerful book yet”). Of course, the crank-meter was still way high for reviews of books by Yasmina Reza, Howard Norman and Jane Smiley, but even in those pieces the vitriol seemed somewhat muted.

What’s going on? Could Michiko be changing her tune about fiction? Is her editor giving her better books to read? Because this happy critic mood is a little unnerving, frankly…

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