Granta 123

Best of Young British Novelists 4

By: Granta Magazine

Narrated by: John Freeman

Length: 11 hrs and 44 mins

Publisher's summary

Every 10 years, Granta Magazine dedicates a special issue celebrating the 20 best British novelists under the age of 40. Historically, the judges have chosen with remarkable prescience, accurately predicting the authors who will craft the future of British fiction. Barker, Barnes, Hollinghurst, Ishiguro, Mitchell, Rushdie, Smith, Tremain, Winterson - long before they were household names they were Granta Best of Young British Novelists. To borrow from The Observer, this is "a list that sets the literary agenda for a generation".

Audible invited all these young novelists to read their work - some of them did, and some of them chose to have their stories professionally narrated - and the result is an exciting blend of literary talent and spoken-word: These distinctive voices and the sense of place that permeate every story create a listening experience you will not soon forget.

Now in audio for the first time, we present the voices of the next generation.

• Introduction by John Freeman, read by John Freeman
• Author introductions read by Glen McCready
• "Vipers" by Kamila Shamsie, read by Kamila Shamsie
• "Glow" by Ned Beauman, read by Ned Beauman
• "Anwar Gets Everything" by Tahmima Anam, read by Sartaj Garewal
• "Soon and in Our Days" by Naomi Alderman, read by Naomi Alderman
• "Filsan" by Nadifa Mohamed, read by Dami Olukoya
• "Europa" by David Szalay, read by David Thorpe
• "After the Hedland" by Evie Wyld, read by Amelia Cormack
• "Driver" by Taiye Selasi, read by Taiye Selasi
• "Slow Motion" by Adam Thirlwell, read by Adam Thirlwell & Sartaj Garewal
• "The End of Endings" by Steven Hall, read by Adam Sims
• "A World Intact" by Adam Foulds, read by Adam Foulds
• "You Don’t Have To Live Like This" by Benjamin Markovits, read by Benjamin Markovits
• "Tomorrow" by Joanna Kavenna, read by Joanna Kavenna
• "Just Right" by Zadie Smith, read by Jennifer Woodward
• "The Reservation" by Sarah Hall, read by Sarah Hall
• "Interim Zone" by Xiaolu Guo, read by Davis Brooks
• "Boy, Snow, Bird" by Helen Oyeyemi, read by Davis Brooks
• "Zephyrs" by Jenni Fagan, read by Rupert Farley
• "Arrivals" by Sunjeev Sahota, read by Sartaj Garewal
• "Submersion" by Ross Raisin, read by Ross Raisin

Editor:

John Freeman's criticism has appeared in more than 200 newspapers around the world, including The Guardian, The Independent, The Times and The Wall Street Journal. Between 2006 and 2008, he served as president of the National Book Critics Circle. His first book, The Tyranny of Email, was published in 2009. How to Read a Novelist will be published in 2013. His poems have appeared in The New Yorker and Zyzzyva.

©2013 Granta (P)2013 Audible Ltd

Critic reviews

"A list that sets the literary agenda for a generation." (The Observer)

Excellent

Original, surprising and eclectic stories and excerpts. It is interesting to hear the authors (mostly) reading their own works! Highly recommended.

Mixed bag

As with any collection of short stories, this is a mixed bag. That goes without saying, what does not is that this is titled best of British Novelists, but the stories are primarily from the “youngish” home countries, rather than Britain.
This made for an interesting, if depressing journey through Third World War stories, relocations and experts from unfinished novels.
The later I resented. An excerpt, a short story does not make in my opinion. I’m sad to say that most of these “short stories “ were not memorable, nor clever in the way I expect a short story to be, they were very much like you’d expect a truncated segment of a novel to be. I blame myself for not doing more research into what I was buying.
That said there were several few gems in here that will stick with me, and even a few I shall search out to read the actual novel.
Not my cup of tea in general, but it might be yours.