Fiction - Five Dials

‘Gayness, queerness, gender plurality, plural pronouns – Africa got there two millennia ago.’

Marlon James on the vast world of Black Leopard, Red Wolf

'War is complicated. Revenge is complicated. These things carry costs. It was very important for me, even though I was writing a fantasy novel, to make it a very grown up book.'

‘How could this possibly be mysterious? Where could this take us?’

A conversation with Tana French

'I’ve looked at criminal investigations through a detective’s eyes six times. But there are a lot of other people involved. There are witnesses, there are victims, there are suspects, there are perpetrators...'

The Body-Text Speaks

What happens when an author subverts the conventions of the book? By Alan Trotter

What are the parts of a book? There is a front and a back, there are the pages: not much to name. Let’s make the attempt though.

Shakespeare would have done well in any generation

Raymond Chandler to Jamie Hamilton

‘I don’t know why the hell I write so many letters,’ Raymond Chandler once wrote, in a letter. ‘I guess my mind is just too active for its own good!’ Chandler d... Read more

Oblivion

by Niamh Campbell

The man’s voice dropped, sounding conspiratorial; Caroline squeezed shut both her eyes, opened them, and nodded soundlessly. After a moment she said, OK. We will wait.

Scene Two

An excerpt from a play by Steve Toltz

Scene two: Hugo's office (HUGO is at his desk, on the phone.) Hugo This is Professor Hugo Fox. I sent down a couple of DNA samples. I was wondering if the ... Read more

In the Arms of Morpheus

by Chloe Ardijis

Insomnia has a boomerang effect. You can never fling your thoughts far enough. Before night is over, they have returned to lodge more deeply. For as long as ... Read more

Dr Lustucru

by Helen Oyeyemi

Dr Lustucru's wife was not particularly talkative. But he beheaded her anyway, thinking to himself that he could replace her head when he wished for her to spea... Read more

‘I was astonished by that silence. The eloquence of the men, the absolute silence of the women.’

A conversation with Pat Barker

In The Silence of the Girls, Booker prizewinning author Pat Barker gives voice to the voiceless characters of The Iliad. We know the men – Agamemnon, Odysseu... Read more

The Language of Dreams

by Najat el Hachmi

To write a novel is to inhabit a dream. A dream that can last months or years, that transpires in everyday life; a dream that sometimes takes place in its very ... Read more

Reading Cesare Pavese

Elizabeth Strout on The Beautiful Summer

How would you describe the appeal of Cesare Pavese’s books? I think the appeal of Pavese’s work comes from the same place most writers’ appeal comes from: th... Read more

‘We’re Terrible People’

One of the best chapters from Joe Dunthorne’s The Adulterants remained unpublished. Until now.

We asked Joe Dunthorne a few questions about his new novel. Five Dials How you were able to cut this scene from the book? In a novel about relationships, isn’... Read more