Growing up with the King of Pop
Marlon James
‘The thrill of Thriller was being part of something global and local at once.’
Top Reads 2020

Qualities of Earth
‘The slutty ingenuity of vegetables when it comes to desire and reproductive methods is a marvel.’
Rebecca May Johnson negotiates allotment culture.

The Second Career of Michael Riegels
‘Globalisation is incomplete: money can go anywhere, but laws cannot.’
Oliver Bullough on one of Britain’s most contested outposts: the British Virgin Islands.

Learning to Sing
‘You discover during your very first lessons that the problem of singing better involves overcoming many other problems you had not ever imagined.’
A new story from Lydia Davis.

Ogadinma
‘She began to count; it was easier this way, counting, because she would not have to remember how she felt.’
An excerpt from Ukamaka Olisakwe’s Ogadinma.

I, Minotaur
‘Like any desert, I learn myself by what’s desired of me—
and I am demoned by those desires.’
From Postcolonial Love Poem by Natalie Diaz.
Marlon James
Marlon James was born in Kingston, Jamaica, in 1970. His first novel, John Crow’s Devil was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and the Commonwealth Prize. His second novel, The Book Of Night Women, a New York Times Editor’s Choice was released to widespread critical acclaim. His third novel, A Brief History of Seven Killings won the 2015 Man Booker Prize. His short fiction has appeared in the anthologies Iron Balloons, Bronx Noir and Silent Voices, and his non-fiction in the Caribbean Review of Books. Currently a professor of literature and creative writing at Macalester College in St Paul, Minnesota.
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