Paul Murray

2 months ago | thedailystar.net | Richard Powers |Sequoia Nagamatsu |Tess Gunty |Paul Murray

Sometimes, unearthing your next favourite book is only a simple measure of connecting the dots between what you have loved previously and what you might enjoy next. Whether it is similar vibes, shared themes or a fresh perspective you are in the quest for, we have got you covered. Here are five book pairings to guide your upcoming reading adventure.

May 24, 2024 | theguardian.com | Paul Murray

My earliest reading memory My father taught literature and when I was young I liked to take the books down from the shelves in his study and look through the covers. Design in the 1970s leaned hard into surrealism – eyes on lighthouses and so on. The cover of A Clockwork Orange I remember finding particularly freaky. Also Saul Bellow’s name. How could someone be called Saul Bellow? I imagined him as a bear-like man with a huge beard and flaring nostrils.

Nov 18, 2023 | theguardian.com | Paul Murray |Chetna Maroo |Paul Lynch |Jonathan Escoffery |Sarah Bernstein |Paul Harding

Paul MurrayThe Bee Sting(Hamish Hamilton) Photograph: Patrick Bolger/The ObserverI started writing The Bee Sting at the end of 2017. I’d spent the previous 18 months working on a screenplay and I was aching to get back to the freedom and possibility of a novel. But for a long time I couldn’t decide what to write. I had three very different ideas and I started making notes for each one: blocking out scenes, tracing character arcs, all that.

Aug 26, 2023 | outlookindia.com | Paul Murray

The woods of Belarus are a maze, a green snow-laden maze that switches itself around whenever he turns his back. It’s winter: the cold is blistering, the enemy is everywhere, grey flashes in the branches, almost too fast to see. Behind you! Nev calls.

Aug 5, 2023 | theguardian.com | Paul Murray

Last year I spent four months teaching in Boston with my wife and son. It was amazing to immerse ourselves in another culture. It was also amazing, as a freelancer, to get holiday pay, and I wanted to take full advantage of it. When I was growing up in Ireland, my family would spend two weeks every summer in a caravan near Skibbereen. Rain-lashed, defiantly entertainment-free, these trips had no clear objective other than to make us appreciate not being on holiday.