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Articles by Jon McGregor
Conor McGregor: From Inspiration to Disappointment. A Fan’s Reflection
KAYO INSIDER by Jon McGregor · Follow 3 min read · -- I remember the first time I saw Conor McGregor fight it was April 6, 2013. This young Irishman, brimming with charisma, made his UFC debut against Marcus Brimage. With pinpoint accuracy, Conor knocked him out within a round and immediately captivated the MMA world, myself included. From that moment, I was hooked. I idolized this fiery fighter from Dublin who promised the world and delivered in style.
Creative Fiction Workshop with Tom Conaghan
Where and how do we find inspiration when we write? How can we overcome obstacles to follow our unconscious? Join Tom Conaghan, publisher of the writers' craft series REVERSE ENGINEERING, to explore how acclaimed authors open themselves to possibilities and listen to the energies of their story. By giving space to the unconscious, learn how to create writing that’s richer, wiser and more resonant, then explore how we can use our conscious mind to shape our fiction.
Lean, Fall Stand
By Jon McGregor
California Literary Review
Fiction Reviews David and Eleanor’s story is an unremarkable one. But their ordinary disappointments and frustrations are precisely what make the novel memorable. McGregor generates great poignancy by naming each chapter after various fragments of the characters’ lives, a letter, a photograph, an old wooden boat. Like Roddy Doyle, McGregor takes uncelebrated lives and invests them with dignity and depth. So Many Ways To Begin Bloomsbury USA, 352 pp.
Table of Contents - February 10, 2022
In the Beforemath In his novels Jon McGregor explores the time before and after tragic events, resisting predictable narrative formulas and rescuing moments outside the chain of cause and effect from oblivion. Lean Fall Stand by Jon McGregor Jacek Dehnel, Ann Frenkel, Gwido Zlatkes Picasso’s Obsessions The last volume of John Richardson’s biography documents the rivalry between Dora Maar and Marie-Thérèse Walter for the painter’s attention and his intense engagement with depicting them.
Storms Crash Through These Two Novels, Leaving Humans in Their Wake
fiction A blizzard in Saddleworth, England, in February 2021. Two novels this fall — one old, one new — explore the unpredictable ways that severe storms can shape and control us.Credit...Lindsey Parnaby/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images Oct. 26, 2021, 4:30 p.m. ET LEAN FALL STAND By Jon McGregor STORM By George R. Stewart Years ago, my husband was caught in a tornado. He stopped his truck on the highway just outside Winner, S.D., and crawled into the ditch.
A book about sex everyone should read
Top Of The Stack 1 NON-FICTION THE RIGHT TO SEX By Amia Srinivasan Bloomsbury/ Paperback/ 268 pages/ $32.95/ Books Kinokuniya 5/5 The direct, attention-grabbing title - which turns out to be much more complicated than it first appears - sets the tone for this necessary treatise of the modern age. Oxford professor Amia Srinivasan trots out six essays on gender and sex of the highest quality - each one a joy to read and informed by the latest ideas.
Saying a Few Words About My Novel at the Aphasia Self-Help Group
“Could you just say a few words about your book?” A hush fell over the room. Not a hush. A slight drop in the chatter and crosstalk. I hesitated. This has never been a favorite question of mine. I find it difficult to talk about my own writing. I flounder for the right words. I am inarticulate about theme and concept, about my own process, about what exactly any of my books are about. My elevator pitches ramble on long after everyone has left the elevator. I didn’t say any of this.
Speculative Thrillers That Blur the Line Between Physics and Philosophy
Science fiction readers recognize the old distinction between stories that are rigorous about scientific plausibility (“hard” SF) and stories that are more fantastical or philosophical (“soft” SF). And writers know wherever there’s a binary, there’s artistic opportunity in breaking it. I appreciate stories that scramble the mechanical and the mystical. By treating fantastical machines, algorithms, and social processes with what feels like hard-SF rigor, we can approach ideas in a fresh way.
Review: 'Lean Fall Stand,' by Jon McGregor
The novels of British author Jon McGregor are distinguished by their enlightening perceptions of both human nature and Mother Nature, and by their restrained prose, as potent as it is subtle. His latest, "Lean Fall Stand," employs these talents to tell the profoundly affecting story of a man who has lost his ability with language.
Review | ‘Lean Fall Stand’ opens with a literal cliffhanger you won’t soon forget
Jon McGregor’s inventive 2017 novel, “Reservoir 13,” lacked a traditional protagonist. The book’s central “character” was the collective consciousness of an English village where a teenage girl has gone missing. The rising tension from her disappearance seeped through the book like stain spreading across a tablecloth until it was completely saturated. With sublime assurance, “Reservoir 13” reimagined how a novel could be told. McGregor’s latest is more conventional in structure and approach.
Lean Fall Stand | City Lights Booksellers & Publishers
Price: $26.00 In stock Overview A thrilling and propulsive novel of an Antarctica expedition gone wrong and its far-reaching consequences for the explorers and their families leaves the reader moved and subtly changed, as if she had become part of the story (Hilary Mantel).
Summary and Reviews of Lean Fall Stand by Jon McGregor
About This Book Summary Excerpt Book Summary A thrilling and propulsive novel of an Antarctica expedition gone wrong and its far-reaching consequences for the explorers and their families "leaves the reader moved and subtly changed, as if she had become part of the story" (Hilary Mantel). Remember the training: find shelter or make shelter, remain in place, establish contact with other members of the party, keep moving, keep calm.
City Lights Booksellers & Publishers
Introduction by: Yiyun Li Price: $16.95 In stock Overview From the author of Reservoir 13 Jon McGregor–winner of the Costa Award and longlisted for the Man Booker Prize–Even the Dogs is Jon McGregor’s daring and humane exploration of homelessness and addiction, now reissued with a new introduction from Yiyun Li A ferocious book, at once intense and alarmingly unsentimental (James Wood, The New Yorker), this intimate exploration of life at the edges of society is littered with love, loss,...
Notable New Novels of Summer 2021
What are the most notable new novels of summer 2021? Well, there are a lot of contenders to choose from. First off, there are a number of new books from big-name authors. Lionel Shriver’s latest offering Should We Stay or Should We Go, for example, is a high concept ‘sliding doors’-style novel centred on a middle aged couple who make a suicide pact before they turn 80, so as to avoid the indignities of old age.
Hardback Fiction to Look Forward to (Summer 2021)
It’s time for our second dispatch of our curated choices of new books coming in 2021. In this list, we’re focusing on new and upcoming hardback fiction published in summer 2021.
Learning to Say ‘Cat’
In The Man Who Lost His Language (2002), a memoir about her husband’s aphasia, Sheila Hale explains that ‘unless complicated by other neurological disorders, aphasia does not usually affect personality.’ I first read the book in April 2019, when my father was in a stroke ward in Madrid. The only sounds he could manage were ‘yuh’ (which often meant ‘no’) and a few grunts and warbles. When he tried to write, it came out as squiggles.
So Many Ways To Begin by Jon McGregor
[Photograph by Rainer Fritz] She woke with a sudden start. How much time had passed she did not know. Glancing at her watch, she found that it had stopped. A feeling of intense uneasiness pervaded her, and grew stronger moment by moment. “The Mystery of the Blue Train” by Agatha Christie Clocks are a constant feature of detective fiction.
Branches of the Same Tree: Max Porter on the Literary Landscape
A Waterstones Book of the Year nominee and now the Waterstones Book of the Month for April, Max Porter's Lanny is a lyrical masterpiece from one of the country's very finest prose stylists. In this exclusive essay, Max examines literature's unique place in the cultural ecosystem and highlights some other authors and works which share his incredible visionary tone. I think a book is alive in the world in the same way a tree is.
'The Suspect' Author Fiona Barton & 'The Hiding Place' Writer C.J. Tudor On How They Shock Their Readers
If you're looking for two of the biggest writers of contemporary suspense fiction, look no further than authors C.J. Tudorand Fiona Barton. Barton is a former reporter whose Kate Waters trilogy includes thrillers The Widow, The Child and 2019's The Suspect, which centers on the disappearance of two 18-year old women in Thailand. Tudor — whose horror-esque debut, The Chalk Manmade a spooky splash in 2018 — will also return this year with The Hiding Place on Feb.
A Real-Life Murder, Committed in the Name of Islamic Extremism, Inspires a Debut Novel
Fiction Dec. 28, 2018 IN OUR MAD AND FURIOUS CITY By Guy Gunaratne 278 pp. MCD/Farrar, Straus & Giroux. Paper, $16. When Fusilier Lee Rigby was murdered on a South London street in 2013, by attackers who claimed to be Islamists, the shock for many locals lay not so much in the brutal details of his death as in the familiar face of the young man who held his bloodied hands up for the cameras in the aftermath.
4 Spooky Short Stories Inspired by Haunting Images
In the spirit of Halloween, we asked writers to respond to photographs by Francesca Woodman, Gregory Crewdson and more, as part of our #TMicronovel series on Instagram. By Shelley Jackson, whose book “Riddance; or, the Sybil Joines Vocational School for Ghost Speakers & Hearing-Mouth Children” was published this month. Marjorie had been preoccupied for some time with an activity the exact nature of which eluded her, though it took all her concentration. Then she looked up, if “up” was the word.
A Reading List About Small Towns Where Everyone Has Something To Hide
A Reading List About Small Towns Where Everyone Has Something To Hide Jon McGregor, author of ‘The Reservoir Tapes,’ on small communities that make for good storytelling Before writing Reservoir 13 and The Reservoir Tapes, most of my fiction had been set in big cities, where the idea of community is somewhat amorphous and the edges of anyone’s territory are blurred and unclear.
J.R.R. Tolkien's Fall of Gondolin and more new books to read in August 2018
How Are You Going to Save Yourself follows the lives of four friends as they drift apart and come back together, navigating adulthood as black men living with traumatic legacies who have been offered very different fortunes as they come of age. Holmes’ searing study in masculinity is offset by irresistible heart and biting humor. (Aug. 21)
A Girl Vanishes. But in This Novel, Time Is the Real Mystery.
The British novelist Jon McGregor is interested in the bystanders to public disasters — the people in the background of the television shot. He is interested not in how deeply they are affected by these events, but how slightly: how they will go on with their lives, preoccupied with their own burdens, which no one will ever see.
Costa Book Awards 2017
It has enriched my leisure time by introducing me to a world of books which I would not have previously considered. Books of the month/debuts of the month, kids/adults, fiction/non-fiction, free prize draws and free extracts, what's not to love? What can I say, the clue is in the title Lovereading - and awesome books. I love Lovereading because I get to read great books and then get to tell everybody how good they are.
Reservoir 13 by Jon McGregor | Waterstones
From the award-winning author of If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things and Even the Dogs. Reservoir 13 tells the story of many lives haunted by one family's loss. Midwinter in the early years of this century. A teenage girl on holiday has gone missing in the hills at the heart of England. The villagers are called up to join the search, fanning out across the moors as the police set up roadblocks and a crowd of news reporters descends on their usually quiet home.
REVIEW: 'Reservoir 13,' by Jon McGregor
Jon McGregor’s first novel, the Man Booker Prize longlisted “If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things,” was a shrewdly composed, beautifully orchestrated urban hymn. “The city, it sings,” ran its opening refrain, and from there McGregor zoomed into a British street and amplified its residents’ individual voices. Fifteen years later, McGregor has attempted something similar, only this time with a rural setting.
Book World: What happens to a tranquil British town when a 13-year-old girl goes missing
In his latest novel, “Reservoir 13,” Jon McGregor has revolutionized that most hallowed of mystery plots: the one where some foul deed takes place in a tranquil English village that, by the close of the case, doesn’t feel so tranquil anymore.
The Best Reviewed Books of the Week
“Like every good historical novel I’ve ever read, the storyline of this one is as hokey as hell and completely transporting … to focus on scattered imperfections would be like focusing on the litter of New York City streets while ignoring the wonder of the city itself. Manhattan Beach is a big gorgeous tribute to New York City and its seaport. In drawing from the classic catalog of New York stories, Manhattan Beach also takes its place among them.” Read an excerpt from Manhattan Beach here 2.
Rise of the Jumbies
Readers first met Corinne La Mer in Tracey Baptiste’s The Jumbies, in which she defeated the malevolent jumbie Severine, who fell to the depths of the sea and was crushed by rockfall. While on her quest to restore peace to her Caribbean island, Corinne discovered she wasn’t just part jumbie—an evil spirit or trickster—but that Severine was her tante (French for aunt). At the revelation of her blood ties, many ostracized the youngster, and tensions have yet to dissolve.
The Afternoon Tea
Learn about our 2017 events. Words shape our worlds. They can delight, inspire, provoke, comfort and unite-as do the authors, journalists and poets who wield them.
Man Booker Longlist 2017
The longlist for the Man Booker Prize for Fiction 2017 has been announced. Thirteen titles from 144 entries published in the United Kingdom in English between October 2016 and September 2017 have been selected. The longlist includes Arundhati Roy's second novel – she wrote her first, The God of Small Things, over 20 years ago (it won the Man Booker). There are two titles from Ireland, four from the UK, four from the US, and two from Pakistan. There are no Canadians on this year's list.
Man Booker longlist 2017
Could it truly already be award season in the literary world? Indeed, it is! Yesterday, the longlist for the Man Booker Prize, one of the most prestigious awards a fiction writer can receive, was announced. The shortlist will be revealed on September 13, and the winner will be announced on October 17. The winner will receive a large cash prize and a small statue.
Introducing the Man Booker Prize 2017 Longlist
The Man Booker Prize longlist for 2017 has been announced! The list is comprised of 13 novels chosen from a list of 144 novels published (or soon to be published) in the UK between October 1, 2016 and September 30, 2017. Here’s the list! The Ministry Of Utmost Happiness by Arundhati Roy Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders The judges this year were Baroness Lola Young (chair), Lila Azam Zanganeh, Sarah Hall, Tom Phillips, and Colin Thubron.
Book review: Jon McGregor tells a masterful tale in Reservoir 13
When Jon McGregor’s debut novel If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things appeared in 2002, it marked the arrival of a novelist who was determined to awaken in his readers an enhanced apprehension of the wonder of the everyday – of the numberless sounds that constitute the "wordless song" of urban life. Listen carefully to the "low soothing hum of air-conditioners", the book told us, and you will hear something magical: "long breaths layered upon each other, a lullaby hum for tired streets".
English translation of Muhsin Al-Ramli’s novel exposes the horrors of war
It begins with a beheading. Then another, and another, until nine severed heads are found in a sleepy Iraqi village. It’s a shockingly vivid introduction to the violent, chaotic world of Muhsin Al-Ramli’s The President’s Garden. Asking where the Iraqi novelist got his inspiration seems an innocent enough question. Nothing prepares you for the answer. "On the third day of Ramadan in 2006, I received news of the slaughter of nine of my relatives who were fasting," Al-Ramli says.
Author Jon McGregor on his newest novel: ‘In Reservoir 13, life goes on’
It has all the ingredients of a classic crime drama. A 13-year-old girl on holiday disappears on a lonely, wintry English moor. The tight-knit rural community solemnly hunts for her as helicopters buzz overhead. Press conferences are called, rumours circulate and the parents begin to lose hope. Hours, days, weeks and months pass, but in Jon McGregor’s enthralling new novel Reservoir 13, the girl remains elusive.
Book news: Shortlist announced for the Folio Prize, and more
Set up as an alternative to the Booker Prize in 2014, the Folio Prize returns after a fallow year with a pleasingly diverse shortlist – probably because the chairwoman is the wonderful Egyptian writer, Ahdaf Soueif.
The Best Books I’ve Read (So Far) as an English Major
As an English major, I often get asked what my favourite books are, and even more so what are the best novels I’ve had to read for school. I think the assumption is that if a book is being taught in a university English class, it must be good. Though this isn’t always the case, there are quite a few books that I’ve had to read for school that I really enjoyed.
The Costa Book Awards
The Costa Book Awards have been running since 1971, although they were known as the Whitbread Awards until 2005. Their aim is to reward books which are both of the highest literary merit but that also appeal to as wide an audience as possible. They are open to authors who have been resident in the UK or Ireland for six months in each of the previous three years.
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