Remembering Martin Amis

In 2024, The New York Times Book Review gathered more than 500 novelists, nonfiction writers, poets and literary enthusiasts to help pick the best books of the 21st century so far. One of those books was Cormac McCarthy’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, “The Road,” which came in at ... Show More

June is here and the long summer days are stretching out ahead, which means it’s time to settle in front of the air-conditioner with a pile of books. (Just us?) But which ones should you read this summer? The “Book Review” podcast’s Gilbert Cruz talks with the Book Review editors ... Show More

Ben Lerner’s slender new novel, “Transcription,” is just 130 pages long, yet it cracks open some of our most colossal and enduring philosophical questions. The novel is told in three parts. We open with an unnamed narrator going to interview his mentor, Thomas — an acclaimed arti ... Show More

Jacke and Mike discuss the life and works of novelist Martin Amis (1949-2023), who recently died of esophageal cancer. The son of writer Kingsley Amis, Martin forged his own path, writing fifteen novels and several other works of essays and memoirs, with a devotion to style that ... Show More

Close friend of Michael Silverblatt’s and Bookworm editor for 30 years, Alan Howard guest hosts this episode on grief and loss. When the two met more than 33 years ago, Michael’s first words were, “What are you reading?” It was a question that brought Howard back to literature. O ... Show More

<p>Comedian and actor Martin Short feels ashamed about being Conan O’Brien’s friend.</p><p><br /></p><p>Martin and Conan sit down to chat about the best time to be 30, the production of <em>Godspell</em> that started it all, how Martin’s Irish heritage shaped his comedy, doing Be ... Show More

Though he was admired by some of the liveliest cultural figures of the twentieth century, David Jones is not known or celebrated in the way that Eliot, Beckett or Joyce have been. Thomas Dilworth's biography - the first full biography of Jones, and thirty years in the making - ai ... Show More

<p>Margaret Atwood joins Deborah Treisman to read and discuss “<a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1976/01/19/varieties-of-exile">Varieties of Exile</a>,” by Mavis Gallant, which was published in <i>The New Yorker</i> in 1976. Atwood is the author of more than forty books ... Show More

<p>Martin Short feels duped about being Conan O’Brien’s friend. Steve Martin feels sad about being Conan O’Brien’s <i>only</i> friend.</p><p> </p><p>Martin and Steve sit down to talk with Conan about his cameo appearance in their live show, season 3 of Only Murders in the Buildin ... Show More

<p>Last week, news broke that writer Paul Auster died from complications related to lung cancer. The New York Times called him “the patron saint of literary Brooklyn;” elsewhere he was dubbed "the dean of American postmodernists." He was the author of many novels such as <i>The N ... Show More

<p>The author Philip Roth, who died in 2018, was not sure whether he wanted to be the subject of a biography. In the end, he decided that he wanted to be known and understood.</p><p>His search for a biographer was long and fraught — Mr. Roth parted ways with two, courted one and ... Show More