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The leaves are changing, and so is the footwear. The names on the books are getting bigger. There is, some might say, a crispness. Yes, it’s time for Literary Hub’s annual Ultimate Fall Reading List, in which I read all of the seasonal literary recommendation/anticipation/best of lists I can find, and then collate them for you in a handy list-of-lists. After all, there’s no s...

Post-pandemic dystopias are at the center of Emily St. John Mandel’s most celebrated novels. Station Eleven (2014), which won the Prix des Libraires du Québec, the Arthur C. Clarke Award, the Toronto Book Award and was a finalist for the National Book Award and the PEN/Fa...

Madeleine Thien’s new story collection, Simple Recipes is available now from W.W. Norton.

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What part of your writing routine do you think would surprise your readers?
Sin...

I grew up in Moscow at the tail end of the Soviet era. Despite its grand title—the capital of the USSR—the city of my youth held little charm. Life, at least for my family, was defined by scarcity, monotony, and drabness. I spent my teenage years longing for something better, so intensely it made my body ache. After school, which was tedious in the extreme, my best friend and...