Rock Star, Freak, Agitator

This week, Thea Lenarduzzi and Lucy Dallas are joined by the critic Nelly Kaprièlian and the TLS’s French editor Russell Williams to discuss ‘Anéantir’, the latest novel by France’s best-known and maybe most controversial writer, Michel Houellebecq; the TLS’s Toby Lichtig talks us through a new memoir by the ‘pre-eminent author of British Jewish novels’, Howard Jacobson, and we consider a masterclass in sympathy from Anne Tyler, a tale of revenge by Japan’s ‘Queen of mysteries’, and a wartime reckoning in Finland.

‘Anéantir’ by Michel Houellebecq

‘Mother’s Boy: A writer’s beginnings’ by Howard Jacobson

‘French Braid’ by Anne Tyler

‘Lady Joker: Volume one’ by Kaoru Takamura, translated by Marie Iida and Allison Markin Powell

‘Land of Snow & Ashes’ by Petra Rautiainen, translated by David Hackston

Produced by Sophia Franklin

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