Fiction -- History and criticism

Javier Cercas is one of the most enjoyable and innovative novelists at work today. Well known among English-language readers as the author of 'Soldiers of Salamis', 'The Anatomy of a Moment' and 'The Impostor', Cercas is also Professor of Spanish Literature at the University of Girona. In 2015, f...

Absence doesn't make the heart grow fonder. It makes people think you're dead. So begins Christopher Fowler's foray into the back catalogues and backstories of 99 authors who, once hugely popular, have all but disappeared from our shelves. Whether male or female, domestic or international, flash-...

Absence doesn't make the heart grow fonder. It makes people think you're dead. So begins Christopher Fowler's foray into the back catalogues and backstories of 99 authors who, once hugely popular, have all but disappeared from our shelves. Whether male or female, domestic or international, flash-...

From medieval romances and tales of chivalry through the realist novels of the 19th century to experimental modernist works and today's explorations of the self, 'Great Novels' explores the finest novels from around the world and through time. Tilt at windmills with Don Quixote, experience heartb...

In the tradition of E.M. Forster's 'Aspects of the Novel' and Milan Kundera's 'The Art of the Novel', 'How Fiction Works' is a scintillating and searching study of the main elements of fiction, such as narrative, detail, characterization, dialogue, realism, and style.

A blend of memoir and criticism, and a masterclass on the connections between fiction and life, from a widely recognised and important critic, explaining what makes him passionate about writing.

This volume discusses the pleasure of reading, and why a novel succeeds or doesn't. The author delves into the character of the novelist, and reveals how novels have affected her own life. She describes the process of novel-writing, sharing the secrets of her own habits and theories of creativity.

Julian Barnes examines British, French and American writers who have meant the most to him, as well as the cross-currents and overlappings of their different cultures. From the deceptiveness of Penelope Fitzgerald to the directness of Hemingway, from Kipling's view of France to the French view of...