Books of the year
The best reading of 2020, according to New Statesman friends and contributors.
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Paul Griffiths: “Beethoven was the first composer to address us with a consistent voice”
The music critic, author and librettist on his Goldsmiths-shortlisted novel Mr Beethoven, and using fiction to better understand history.
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M John Harrison: “A number of novels don’t sit well in their genre of origin”
The English novelist on the power of innovative fiction, the “sad but luminous muddle” of being alive, and his Goldsmiths-shortlisted work The…
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Anakana Schofield: “I’m glad to be confused by literature”
The Goldsmiths Prize-shortlisted novelist on writing about older women, “dreary, middlebrow” literature and why she volunteers for Dying with Dignity.
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DBC Pierre: “Novels are free spaces, just about the only ones left”
The Australian novelist on fifth novel Meanwhile in Dopamine City, surveillance capitalism and why Beowulf deserves a retrospective Goldsmiths Prize.
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Xiaolu Guo: “The way we read has changed radically in the digital age”
The Chinese novelist on her Goldsmiths-shortlisted book A Lover’s Discourse, her love of Roland Barthes, and why fragmented narratives best represent…
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The magic of Frances Hodgson Burnett
The Secret Garden has enchanted readers for more than a century. But few pay attention to the remarkabe life of…
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Hermione Lee on how to write a life
Lee is known for her landmark biographies of writers such as Virginia Woolf and Edith Wharton. Now, she has taken…
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