John Self

3 days ago | thecritic.co.uk | John Self

This article is taken from the May 2025 issue of The Critic. To get the full magazine why not subscribe? Right now we’re offering five issues for just £10. Ben Markovits is something of an enigma — to me, at least. The British-American novelist has been productive if not downright prolific, publishing 11 novels since his debut 21 years ago, and in 2013 was selected as one of Granta’s Best Young British Novelists.

1 week ago | thetimes.com | John Self

It takes an admirable level of single-mindedness to write a sequel nobody was clamouring for, to a novel that was almost universally panned, but then Edward St Aubyn has always been a one-of-a-kind talent. He gave us the five brilliant, funny, painful Patrick Melrose novels, inspired by his own life — but he has also given us five other novels that, if they didn’t actually stink the place out, were certainly pretty whiffy.

1 week ago | thetimes.com | John Self

2 weeks ago | ft.com | John Self

The American writer Nell Zink has made her name with a series of mostly short, sparky novels since her excellent debut The Wallcreeper a...

2 weeks ago | irishtimes.com | John Self

Barley Patch Author: Gerald Murnane ISBN-13: 978 1 9167 5114 9Publisher: And Other StoriesGuideline Price: £14.99The Australian writer Gerald Murnane is one of the literary world’s idiosyncrasies. His work is demanding enough to attract regular tips for the Nobel Prize in Literature, but irresistible enough to give him a dedicated more-than-cult following. He attracts praise from writers such as JM Coetzee: he is the Nobel laureate’s Nobel-laureate-in-waiting.