Karen Solie’s Wellwater wins TS Eliot poetry prize Poet’s sixth collection explores the destruction of the natural world, with a perspective shaped by her upbringing in rural Canada The Guardian - UK · Jan 19
The Future of Truth by Werner Herzog review – profound, or just a prank? The director’s provocative seventh book takes in toupees, AI and a pig in a sewer. Should we take him seriously? The Guardian - UK · Oct 8, 2025
‘Great range and power’: TS Eliot poetry prize shortlist announced Ten poets, including Tom Paulin and Sarah Howe, appear on the shortlist for the £25,000 award, which judges described as offering ‘something for everyone’ The Guardian - UK · Oct 7, 2025
‘Ambitious’ or ‘pretentious’? The contested legacy of Richard Flanagan’s The Narrow Road to the Deep North In 2018, it was announced that Richard Flanagan’s Man Booker Prize-winning novel The Narrow Road to the Deep North (2013) would be made into a “high-end drama series” by FremantleMedia. Jo Porter, Fremantle’s director of drama, called the novel “ripe for screen adaptation with huge visual potential and scale”. A… The Conversation · Apr 11, 2025
Why you might struggle to find this year’s International Booker winner in UK libraries – and why publishing suffers as a result As an expert in German and translation, I was pleased to see Jenny Erpenbeck’s novel Kairos win the International Booker Prize 2024, one of the most prominent celebrations of translated literature in the UK. The prize is awarded for a book, and to the people who wrote it: in this… The Conversation · Jun 11, 2024
‘It was high time I told our stories’: Jenny Erpenbeck on her International Booker winner Kairos A pulse-quickening novel about a tempestuous age-gap relationship at the time of the fall of the Berlin Wall has won the top prize for translated fiction. The German author and her translator discuss how it entwines the personal and political The Guardian - UK · May 23, 2024
Kairos by Jenny Erpenbeck wins the International Booker prize – a chaotic love at the end of times German writer Jenny Erpenbeck and translator Michael Hofmann have won the International Booker prize for the novel Kairos. The Conversation · May 22, 2024
German author Jenny Erpenbeck wins International Booker Prize for tale of tangled love affair German author Jenny Erpenbeck and translator Michael Hofmann have won the International Booker Prize for the novel “Kairos.” The Independent UK · May 21, 2024
Kairos by Jenny Erpenbeck wins International Booker prize Erpenbeck is the first German writer and Michael Hofmann the first male translator to win the £50,000 prize for novel which tells the story of a relationship set against the collapse of East Germany The Guardian - UK · May 21, 2024
Six ‘implicitly optimistic’ novels make the International Booker prize shortlist From books about disintegrating relationships and countries to a worker’s-eye view of Korea and a story of farmers in Brazil, the selected titles engage with current realities, say the judging panel The Guardian - UK · Apr 9, 2024
Latin American fiction ‘booms’ again on International Booker prize longlist Works from the continent make up a quarter of this year’s nominees, which include novels from Argentina, Venezuela, Brazil and Peru The Guardian - UK · Mar 11, 2024
Utopia gone wrong: identity and history intersect in Jenny Erpenbeck’s haunting new novel Jenny Erpenbeck’s new novel Kairos, translated by Michael Hofmann, is a story about a relationship between a young woman and an older married man, set against the backdrop of the final years of the German Democratic Republic. The Conversation · Oct 2, 2023
Kairos by Jenny Erpenbeck review – subtle insights into politics and passion A love affair in 1980s Berlin mirrors the demise of the socialist dream in the German author’s absorbing fourth novel The Guardian - UK · Jun 11, 2023
Kairos by Jenny Erpenbeck review – a monumental breakup The contours of a relationship are echoed by the collapse of East Germany in this invigorating novel of lost love The Guardian - UK · Jun 8, 2023
The Guardian - UK · Aug 21, 2022 The Twilight World by Werner Herzog review – Japanese officer’s infinity war The German film-maker’s partly fictionalised account of an imperial army soldier who refused to surrender until 1974 frustratingly fails to get inside its fascinating subject’s head
The Guardian - UK · Jul 8, 2022 The Twilight World by Werner Herzog review – a film-maker’s eerie debut Herzog draws on the extraordinary story of a real-life Japanese soldier who fought on for decades, unaware that the second world war was over
The Guardian - UK · Jul 1, 2022 The best recent poetry – review roundup Poukahangatus by Tayi Tibble; Rookie by Caroline Bird; One Language by Anastasia Taylor-Lind; Sonnets for Albert by Anthony Joseph; High Desert by André Naffis-Sahely