Happy New Year from all of us here at TheNile! Here’s something very special. • “The usual storyline runs something like this: someone comes to Baker Street with a problem. Holmes smiles knowingly, then assures the worried soul that all will be well. He excuses himself while refusing to tell Watson what he thinks or [...]
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Merry Christmas from Japan’s favorite beatboxer! I DON’T NEED A REASON! • Writing Wrongs: When Authors Attack! • “That there is some algorithm which helps us determine who wrote what falls into the same kind of category of futility as those scientific studies that claim to have determined the formula for female beauty or what [...]
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Here’s a trailer for Peter Jackson’s soon-to-be-released adaptation of Alice Sebold’s bestselling novel – The Lovely Bones. Enjoy! • How about a list of the decade’s best unread books? • How about a list of the decade’s best science fiction novels? • How about a list of the decade’s best neologisms? This one’s a real [...]
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Her Fearful Symmetry Audrey Niffenegger Year: 2009 Pages:309 Having a mega-bestselling debut novel is a wonderful and dangerous thing; it scores you legions of fans, glowing reviews and no doubt, a nice sum in your bank account. But then comes the heavy burden of repeating that success with the follow up novel. Enter Audrey Niffenegger. [...]
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I seem to have unwittingly composed a somewhat sci-fi-centric link roundup this week. So to further the theme, might I present to you a very long (but interesting) history of the pulp novel. Enjoy! • The Noughties are almost gone! To celebrate, the Guardian has outlined some of the best and worst novels of the [...]
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Magpie Hall Rachael King Year: 2009 Pages: 280 “There were two rumours surrounding my great- great-grandfather Henry Summers: one, that his cabinet of curiosities drove him mad; and, two, that he murdered his first wife.” And so begins Rachael King’s rich and fascinating new ghost story with a difference, Magpie Hall. Rosemary Summers returns to [...]
The Muppets do Bohemian Rhapsody • Annie Proulx does not appreciate your Brokeback Mountain slash fic. • Jonathan Littell’s The Kindly Ones wins the 2009 Bad Sex in Fiction award! QUOTE: “I came suddenly, a jolt that emptied my head like a spoon scraping the inside of a soft-boiled egg.” • “I come to bury [...]
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Juliet, Naked Nick Hornby Year: 2009 Pages: 250 Sex, love and rock and roll – it’s a tired cliché but Nick Hornby’s sixth novel Juliet, Naked has all three, and it’s anything but clichéd. Somehow Annie and Duncan have been together 15 years but about the only thing they have left in common in their [...]
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A stunning short film on the beauty of the book. Enjoy! • Reclusive author Cormac McCarthy takes some time out with the WSJ to discuss the upcoming film adaptation of The Road. • OK. So there is a lot of bad sex in fiction. But I’ll bet you’d struggle to name one book in which [...]
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The winners of the 2009 National Book Awards have been announced! In a lavish ceremony held in New York last night, Andy Borowitz presented the 2009 fiction award to Colum McCann for his novel, Let the Great World Spin. Focusing on the lives of several New Yorkers on one day in 1974 (namely, the day [...]
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