Omar El Akkad on debut American War
The National, April 2017 Rising sea levels have swept away the southern coast of the United States. South Carolina is surrounded by a wall to prevent a virus from spreading. It is 2075 and the […]
BOOKS
In Extremis by Tim Parks
The National, April 2017 “I had come to a complete dead end, a position of utter impasse and ugliness.” Thomas, the neurotic 50-something protagonist in the 18th novel from enduring English novelist Tim Parks, is […]
Compass by Mathias Énard
The National, March 2017 Mathias Énard’s first novel to be translated into English was a 500-page monologue by a spy on a train, published as a single sentence. Zone was Énard writ large – poetic, […]
Ayobami Adebayo on debut Stay With Me
The National, March 2017 Ayobami Adebayo was fidgeting in the Lagos bank she worked in, restless, desperately bored and unfulfilled. “It was mind-numbing work,” she says. “I was terrified that if I didn’t start working […]
The enduring legacy of One Thousand and One Nights
The National, February 2017 With enthralling tales of malevolent genies, magical lamps and a restless seafarer named Sinbad, One Thousand and One Nights is surely the Arab world’s most famous story. It continues to exert […]