Monday, May 26, 2008

What I'm Reading: Julian Barnes

Julian Barnes discusses what he is currently reading as part of an article associated with this year's Hay Festival. Of particular note is The Collected Stories by Lorrie Moore, published by Faber and Faber this month. Barnes interviewed Moore as one of the festival's events this year.

To read Barnes's contribution, visit the Guardian website for 25 May: http://books.guardian.co.uk/

You may purchase Lorrie Moore's The Collected Stories from Faber and Faber, Amazon.co.uk, or one of a number of local independent booksellers.

"East Wind" -- A New Short Story by Julian Barnes

Julian Barnes has published a new short story in the May 19, 2008, issue of The New Yorker.

Read the story, titled "East Wind" on their website, or pick up an issue at your local bookseller or newstand.

At The New Yorker website, you can also read other works written by Barnes, including:

"Trespass" [Fiction]

"The Past Conditional" [Excerpt from Nothing to be Frightened of]

Alethea Hayter (1911-2006)

"Back -- due to popular demand" Guardian Review, 3 May 2008 [Writers discuss which books they would consider ordering through the "on demand" service offered by Faber and Faber called Faber Finds].

Julian Barnes chooses two works by Alethea Hayter (1911-2006): A Sultry Month (1965), which he describes as, "a brilliant recreation of a few weeks in London literary life in 1846, which is highly original in its form and narrative cross-cutting" and Horatio's Version (1972), "the report of a court of inquiry into events at Elsinore: as interesting a reworking of the play as Tom Stoppard's more famous version".