Karl Ove Knausgaard’s six autobiographical novels, published in Norway between 2009 and 2011 under the series title *Min Kamp* (‘My Struggle’) have excited controversy and critical acclaim in equal measure. Knausgaard’s unflinching and almost uncritical laying on of detail has led some critics to call him ‘the Norwegian Proust’. ‘There is something ceaseless ... Show More
Oct 28
Jeremy Lee & Bee Wilson: Kitchening
Jeremy Lee’s smoked eel sandwich became a London sensation when it was introduced at Soho’s Quo Vadis, where Lee is chef proprietor and, amongst other things, led Jay Rayner to call him ‘a rare phenomena in the London food world; a chap everyone agrees is a good thing.’ Now his s ... Show More
59m 12s
Oct 21
Lavinia Greenlaw & Mark Wallinger: On Difficulty (and Poetry)
In On Difficulty (Faber), her latest book of non-poetry, poet and essayist Lavinia Greenlaw explores the fascination, terror and opportunity of wrestling with the opaque, the obscure, the complex and the indeterminate. Is poetry really difficult, and do we like it more when it is ... Show More
58m 26s
Oct 14
Claudia Rankine & Victoria Adukwei Bulley: Triage
Triage (Allen Lane), Claudia Rankine’s new book, is an unclassifiable piece of writing, blending narrative, criticism and lyricism to create something capable of facing ‘the collective devastation of the present’ (in Saidiya Hartman’s words). Two friends meet in an art gallery af ... Show More
1h 11m
Aug 2020
Kim Adrian, "Dear Knausgaard: Karl Ove Knausgaard’s My Struggle" (Fiction Advocate, 2020)
In 2009, a novel was released in Norway with a fairly simple premise; the author would simply write about himself, his life and his attempts to write. The autobiographical novel would be the first in a 6-volume series that would eventually total over 3,500 pages written in just 3 ... Show More
1h 5m
Jan 2018
132. Karl Ove Knausgaard (writer) – The Way I Should Be in the World
Wherever you are right now, take a look around you. Let your eyes rest on the first thing that catches your attention. For me, while writing this, it’s a bowl in Big Think’s offices. Highly polished, assembled, it seems, from curved, stained strips of wood. If I kept going, I mig ... Show More
42m 56s
Jan 2025
Book Club: Let’s Talk About Alan Hollinghurst’s ‘Our Evenings’
<p>The novel “Our Evenings,” by Alan Hollinghurst, follows a gay English Burmese actor from childhood into old age as he confronts confusing relationships, his emerging sexuality, racism and England’s changing political climate in the late 20th and early 21st century. It’s the st ... Show More
47m 52s
Oct 2025
Andrew O'Hagan: Caledonian Road
Andrew O'Hagan is the author of seven novels, as well as being a brilliant journalist. We sat down to discuss his epic novel Caledonian Road, a state-of-the-nation novel about one man’s tragic fall from grace. He’s socially and politically liberal, and feels he’s done everything ... Show More
49m 35s
Sep 2023
Andrew O’Hagan Reads Donald Antrim
Andrew O’Hagan joins Deborah Treisman to discuss “An Actor Prepares,” by Donald Antrim, which was published in The New Yorker in 1999. O’Hagan is the author of six novels, including “The Illuminations” and “Mayflies,” which was published in 2020 and won the Los Angeles Times Chri ... Show More
1h 18m
Jun 2021
Ben Okri Reads Franz Kafka
Ben Okri joins Deborah Treisman to read and discuss “The Rescue Will Begin in Its Own Time,” four short fiction pieces by Franz Kafka, translated from the German by Michael Hofmann, which were published in The New Yorker in June of 2020. Okri is the author of two dozen books of f ... Show More
48m 33s