It’s not quite the proverbial waiting for a bus for ages and three come along at once, but we are getting a new Douglas Stuart novel a scant two years after his début. Read more
'Normally agents and editors read a book thinking. "Do I love this, would other people love this?" Now a new concern has sprung up: "Will other people object to it?" You're worrying about whether what characters say can be taken out of context, screengrabbed and put on Twitter, and that the author will be punished.
As a suspense writer, I'm often diving headfirst into the less-palatable parts of the human psyche. Give me a manipulative genius or a villainous heartthrob any day. A social climber with a slightly-malicious agenda? Yes, please. This is the kind of stuff my debut novel, The Night She Went Missing, is made of.
"So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past." It is one of the most memorable literary payoffs in history, the end of F Scott Fitzgerald's defining novel of the 20th century, The Great Gatsby.
I write on this subject a lot, because I believe that a strong character arc really is the key to an emotionally affecting novel, one that will make a strong connection with readers. And over my decade plus as a book coach, I've seen it over and over: the strongest, most affecting character arcs are anchored in the author's own experience.
What did the sensitivity readers say? And did I care? Of all the aspects of the recent attempt to cancel my work, the one that seems to fascinate most people is the moment when my publishers sent my Orwell Prize-winning memoir, Some Kids I Taught and What They Taught Me, to be assessed by experts who would detect and reform its problematic racism and ableism.