Author Archives: beatriceco

Book excerpt: “Playworld” by Adam Ross

Knopf

We may receive an affiliate commission from anything you buy from this article.Adam Ross, the acclaimed author of “Mr. Peanut,” returns with “Playworld” (Knopf), a novel dipped in nostalgia and flecked with love and sorrow, about a child actor coming of age as the object of attraction for an older woman. Read an excerpt below. “Playworld” by Adam RossPrefer to listen? Audible has a 30-day free trial available right now.PrologueIn the fall of 1980, when I was fourteen, a friend of my parents named Naomi Shah fell in love with me. She was thirty-six, a mother of two, and married to a wealthy man. Like so many things that happened to me that year, it didn’t seem strange at the time.Two decades later, when I finally told my mother—we were on Long Island, taking a walk on the beach—she stopped, stunned, and said, “But she was such an ugly woman.” The remark wasn’t as petty as it sounds. If I was aware of it then, it neither repulsed me nor affected my feelings for Naomi. It was just a thing I took for granted, like the color of her hair.Wiry and ashen, it had the shading but not the shimmer of pigeon feathers. Naomi kept it long, so that it fell past her shoulders. I knew it by touch, for my face was often buried in it. Only later did I wonder if she considered herself unattractive, because she always wore sunglasses, as if to hide her face, large gold frames with blue-tinted prescription lenses. When we were driving together, which was often that year, she’d allow these to slide down her nose and then look at me over their bridge. She might’ve considered this pose winning, but it was more likely to see me better. Her mouth often hung slightly open. Her lower teeth were uneven, and her tongue, which pressed against them, always tasted of coffee.Naomi’s car was a silver Mercedes sedan—300sd along with turbo diesel nickel-plated on the back—that made a deep hum when she drove. The interior, enormous in my mind’s eye, was tricked out with glossy wood paneling and white leather, back seat so wide and legroom so ample they made the driver appear to be far away. It was in this car that Naomi and I talked most often. We’d park, and then she’d lean across the armrest to press her cheek to mine, and I’d sometimes allow her to kiss me. Other times we’d move to the back. Lying there with Naomi, her nose nuzzled to my neck, I’d stare at the ceiling’s dotted fabric until the pattern seemed to detach and drift like a starred sky. This car was her prized possession, and like many commuters, she had turned the machine into an extension of her body. Her left thumb lightly hooked the wheel at eight o’clock when traffic was moving, her fingertips sliding to eleven when it was slow. She preferred to sit slightly reclined, her free hand spread on her inner thigh, though after she lost her pinky the following summer, and even after being fitted with a prosthesis, she kept it tucked away.

“I was worried you’d think it was disgusting,” she said, the digit hidden between the seat and her hip. She’d bought herself a diamond ring to hide the seam, and for the most part the likeness was uncanny, but at certain angles you could tell—the cuticle’s line was too smooth, the nail’s pale crescent too creamy to match the others. Like my father’s fake teeth, which he occasionally left lying around our apartment, I was fascinated by it, though my curiosity wasn’t morbid. I was a child actor, you see, a student of all forms of dissembling, and had long ago found my greatest subject to be adults.      Excerpted from “Playworld” by Adam Ross. Copyright © 2025 by Adam Ross. Excerpted by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.Get the book here:”Playworld” by Adam RossBuy locally from Bookshop.orgFor more info:

Book excerpt: “The Note” by Alafair Burke

Knopf

We may receive an affiliate commission from anything you buy from this article.In Alafair Burke’s “The Note” (Knopf), a new thriller by the New York Times bestselling author of “The Wife,” a prank played by three women on vacation in the Hamptons causes them to get caught up in a police investigation over a missing person. Read an excerpt below. “The Note” by Alafair BurkePrefer to listen? Audible has a 30-day free trial available right now.It was meant to be a harmless prank. Not even a prank, not initially.An inside joke, only for the three of them. But now she was locking her apartment door behind two departing police officers.She had managed to sound appropriately earnest but unworried when they began asking questions. After all, why should May Hanover, of all people, be nervous around police? May was the good girl, always. The one who only needed to be told once by a teacher to open a book to a specific page. The teenager who drove strictly within the limits of her learner’s permit. Even her pug, Gomez, seemed to understand at an instinctive level why he needed to break away from his neighbor buddies to ride the building’s service elevator while they strutted brazenly with their humans through the lobby.May, simply put, was a rule follower. A rule enforcer, in fact. It was a trait that had helped her succeed in life, but, as she had learned, could also lead to trouble.

Josh emerged from the bedroom where he’d gone to give her privacy when the police arrived. Gomez waddled slightly behind him. “Was that about Roland Shaw?”Shaw was the man she’d convicted in her final in-person trial as an assistant district attorney after he was found breaking into his next victim’s apartment. “How’d you know?” Could a question be a lie? That one probably counted. So many lies since she’d gotten home yesterday from her long weekend in the Hamptons.”That was a major case for you. I recognized the big guy from the news.”The trial was before she and Josh had found themselves suddenly living together. Before they were engaged. The media coverage consisted of two small articles in the Post, including a photograph of a defiant-looking May flanked by two detectives in the courthouse hallway—one of them the “big guy” Josh recognized. Whereas May was obsessed with all things crime-related—in her job, the news, truth or fiction—Josh found it all, quote, “dark and depressing.” But Josh was interested in all things May-related. Of course he had followed the coverage.”The DA’s Office got an inquiry from another jurisdiction and needed to clear something up,” she said. Misleading, but technically true.”They couldn’t just call you?” he asked.”Actually, he called, but I didn’t see the message.” That one was a full-on lie. “Guess he’s training a new guy and wanted a change of scenery.”

“Well, I’m glad they were quick. I really wanted a Negroni but thought the sound of a cocktail shaker might be inadvisable while you were in official law enforcement mode.””Another reason why you should stir,” she said. “I like what I like.””Make two? I’m getting back into my comfy clothes.” She called Lauren once she was alone in the bedroom. “Hey there, woman. We were just saying we miss you.””Yes, we miss you!” Kelsey called out in the background. “Come back here right now. It’s boring without you.”May could hear a few drinks’ worth of enthusiasm in Kelsey’s voice. “You’re clearly having a miserable time. Absolutely suffering.” She felt a knot form in her sternum as she steeled herself to explain why she was calling. “I don’t even know how to say this, but the police are probably going to call you. Both of you.””What? How would they even know about us?” Lauren asked. “They came to my apartment. They asked who I was with. I didn’t have a choice. They have your names. And your phone numbers.” “How? Were there cameras or something?”

“No, it was because of me. I’m so sorry.”What had she gone and done? No one was supposed to know about any of their stupidity. And now something really, really bad was going to happen—she could feel it. Something she couldn’t control. She wanted to open her mouth wide to scream—to scream impossibly loudly again, like last time.      Excerpted from “The Note” by Alafair Burke. Copyright © 2025 by Alafair Burke. Excerpted by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.Get the book here:”The Note” by Alafair BurkeBuy locally from Bookshop.orgFor more info:

The Book Report: Washington Post critic Ron Charles (January 26)

By Washington Post book critic Ron CharlesThe year is already off to a great start:     

Knopf

Adam Ross’s terrific new novel, “Playworld,” is dipped in nostalgia and flecked with love and sorrow. It’s 1980 in New York: Griffin Hurt is a successful teenage actor who just wants to pass his classes, excel on the wrestling team and date a pretty girl, but instead he’s got to deal with fame, his parents’ ambitions, predatory adults, and his own yearning for authenticity. Drawing on his experiences as a child actor, Ross blends a child’s innocence with a man’s wry reflection to produce a big, irresistible story. READ AN EXCERPT: “Playworld” by Adam Ross”Playworld” by Adam Ross (Knopf), in Hardcover, eBook and Audio formats, available via Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Bookshop.orgFollow Adam Ross on Instagram

Grand Central Publishing

As you forage through this winter’s new books, you are not likely to find a more charming novel than “Tartufo.” Kira Jane Buxton’s story about truffle-mania whisks us away to Italy and serves up one buttery page of comedy after another. At the start, a little Tuscan village is dying, and the new mayor is desperate to attract tourists. As luck would have it, in a nearby forest, a truffle-hunter and his dogs are about to discover the largest truffle in the world.

It’s a miracle that could bring untold riches and worldwide attention – or unimaginable disaster! READ AN EXCERPT: “Tartufo” by Kira Jane Buxton”Tartufo” by Kira Jane Buxton (Grand Central Publishing), in Hardcover, eBook and Audio formats, available January 28 via Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Bookshop.orgkirajanebuxton.com

Knopf

Tired of winter? In Alafair Burke’s new thriller “The Note,” three women who’ve been friends for years gather for a sun-filled vacation in the Hamptons. One night, on their way to dinner, a couple in a white sedan cuts them off and steals their parking space. Incensed, one of the women leaves a damning note on his windshield. It’s just a prank, after all. But the next day, the driver goes missing … and these three friends get caught up in an investigation that could uncover all manner of deadly secrets.  READ AN EXCERPT: “The Note” by Alafair Burke

“The Note” by Alafair Burke (Knopf), in Hardcover, Large Print Trade Paperback, eBook and Audio formats, available via Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Bookshop.orgalafairburke.com

Knopf

Next month, Bill Gates, the legendary co-founder of Microsoft, will publish his first memoir. In “Source Code: My Beginnings,” Gates reportedly looks back at his childhood, his awkward adolescence, and the experiences that led him to the then-burgeoning world of computers. This is a memoir that promises to reveal the formative life of one of the most revolutionary figures alive – a man whose products changed the way we work, and whose philanthropy is now racing to save the world. “Source Code: My Beginnings” by Bill Gates (Knopf), in Hardcover, Large Print Trade Paperback, eBook and Audio formats, available February 4 via Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Bookshop.orgGates Notes: The website of Bill GatesThat’s it for the Book Report. For these and other suggestions about what to read this winter, talk with your local bookseller or librarian

I’m Ron Charles. Until next time, read on!     For more info:        Produced by Robin Sanders and Cameron Jimenez. Editor: Libby Fabricatore.        For more reading recommendations, check out these previous Book Report features from Ron Charles: 

The best closing lines from books – from poignant final passages to chilling closing sentences

“First sentences are doors to worlds,” author Ursula K. Le Guin famously said. And while this may be true, it’s the final lines that often stay with us long after we’ve finished reading.Some of the best final lines are disruptive, like cannons suddenly firing one last expletive before leaving us with silence. Great final lines will sometimes leave us cursing the author, and other times make us close the book with a deep sense of satisfaction that everything has been neatly packaged up. While some authors will throw readers off with a discerning change of tone or curveball, others use the final passage to reflect on the events of the book, often with a nod to the future.There’s no formula for a brilliant closing line, but these are the final passages that will remain forever ingrained in our memory.The best closing lines from booksThe Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald(Image credit: Getty Images)”So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.”It would be remiss not to include the famous closing lines from The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald’s 1925 masterpiece, set in Jazz Age New York. Centred on the self-made millionaire, Jay Gatsby and his pursuit of Daisy Buchanan, a rich, old-money socialite, the novel is widely perceived as an indictment of the American Dream, with the poetic final lines succinctly summarising the impossibility of ever achieving it through hard work alone.Shop must-read classics…

The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald

The Great Gatsby frequently tops lists of the best fiction books and is often seen as the ultimate American novel.

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

Frankenstein is widely considered to be the first science fiction book and was written by Mary Shelley when she was just 19. The gothic novel has since been widely adapted in film and popular culture but nothing quite matches up to the original book.

The Catcher in the Rye by J D Salinger

Loved by disaffected teenagers the world over, and by anyone who remembers being one, Catcher in the Rye centres on teen Holden Caulfield who is caught between the lost innocence of childhood and the (rather unappealing) world of adults.

1984, George Orwell(Image credit: Getty Images)”He loved Big Brother.”Sign up to our free daily email for the latest royal and entertainment news, interesting opinion, expert advice on styling and beauty trends, and no-nonsense guides to the health and wellness questions you want answered.George Orwell’s 1949 dystopian novel ends with protagonist Winston Smith surrendering to Big Brother – an inevitable fate for a broken character – but heartbreaking and chilling all the same.The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger(Image credit: Getty Images)”It’s funny. Don’t ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody.”Who hasn’t been caught off-guard by profound moments of missing someone, even if you never realised you enjoyed their company at the time? J.D. Salinger’s 1951 coming-of-age classic ends on an ambiguous but thematically relevant note, reflecting the novel’s themes of teenage angst, alienation and identity.To the Lighthouse, Virginia Woolf(Image credit: Getty Images)”Yes, she thought, laying down her brush in extreme fatigue, I have had my vision.”In a brilliant closing sentence that hardly needs any context to be understood, this closing line comes after protagonist Lily finally completes her painting following an epiphanic moment that also reflects on the novel’s larger themes including time and subjectivity.Post Office, Charles Bukowski(Image credit: Getty Images)“In the morning it was morning and I was still alive. Maybe I’ll write a novel, I thought And then I did.”A punchy ending to Bukowski’s semiautobiographical novel that he reportedly penned in one month, loosely based on his own experience working in the postal service from 1958-1970.Animal Farm, George Orwell(Image credit: Getty Images)”The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.”A powerful commentary on the corrupting nature of power, the closing lines of Orwell’s 1945 novel Animal Farm depict the revolutionaries (the pigs) becoming as cruel as the humans they initially sought to overthrow.The Sun Also Rises, Ernest Hemingway(Image credit: Getty Images)”Oh Jake,” Brett said, “We could have had such a damned good time together.” Ahead was a mounted policeman in khaki directing traffic. He raised his baton. The car slowed suddenly, pressing Brett against me. Yes,” I said. “Isn’t it pretty to think so?”A crushing final passage from one of the best books about unattainable love, Jake’s poetic final remark “Isn’t it pretty to think so” captures his cynical but grounded realisation that he and Brett would never have made it work, no matter the circumstance.Sister Carrie, Theodore Dreiser(Image credit: Getty Images)”In your rocking-chair, by your window dreaming, shall you long, alone. In your rocking-chair, by your window, shall you dream such happiness as you may never feel.”Ever a realist, Dreiser’s 1900 novel, Carrie, ends with its protagonist achieving everything she wanted but still missing that indefinable thing that could make her happy.Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell(Image credit: Getty Images)”Tomorrow, I’ll think of some way to get him back. After all, tomorrow is another day.”An iconic phrase to live by, the final lines uttered by protagonist Scarlett O’Hara are both hopeful and heartbreaking.A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens(Image credit: Getty Images)”It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known.”Set in the late eighteenth century during the French Revolution, Dickens’ 1859 novel, A Tale of Two Cities, ends on a tragic note as Dickens imagines the protagonist’s final speech as he’s being led to the guillotine.Beloved, Toni Morrison(Image credit: Getty Images)”Beloved.”The closing line of Toni Morrison’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel comprises just one word, the name of former slave Sephe’s dead child, who haunts her house before she’s exorcised. The final line urges readers to remember – and not bury – the memories of Beloved or the enduring scars of slavery.Frankenstein, Mary Shelley(Image credit: Getty Images)”He was soon borne away by the waves and lost in darkness and distance.”After the death of his maker, Frankenstein’s Monster goes off to die, seemingly left without purpose or the ability to ever live in harmony with humans.Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad(Image credit: Getty Images)”The offing was barred by a black bank of clouds, and the tranquil waterway leading to the uttermost ends of the earth flowed sombre under an overcast sky – seemed to lead into the heart of an immense darkness.”A melancholic and visceral ending to Conrad’s controversial classic.Goodbye to Berlin, Christopher Isherwood(Image credit: Getty Images)”Even now I can’t altogether believe that any of this has really happened.” The concluding line of Isherwood’s 1939 novel about life in Berlin between the years of 1929-1932 is a sombre goodbye to a city he no longer recognises.Catch-22, Joseph Heller(Image credit: Getty Images)”The knife came down, missing him by inches, and he took off.”The term ‘Catch-22’ originated in Joseph Heller’s 1961 novel of the same name, which satirises the absurdity of war and bureaucratic processes.The Unnamable, Samuel Beckett(Image credit: Getty Images)”…you must go on, I can’t go on, I’ll go on.”A phrase that’s probably resonated with most of us at some point, this quote from Samuel Beckett is probably one of his best-known. It appeared at the end of his 1953 novel, L’Innommable (The Unnamable).Crime and Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky(Image credit: Getty Images)”But that is the beginning of a new story – the story of the gradual renewal of a man, the story of his gradual regeneration, of his passing from one world into another, of his initiation into a new unknown life. That might be the subject of a new story, but our present story is ended.”And so ends Dostoyevsky’s 1866 novel, originally published in 12 instalments in the literary journal, The Russian Messenger. A message of hope and redemption, after death and punishment.Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, JK Rowling(Image credit: Getty Images)”The scar had not pained Harry for 19 years. All was well.”The final line of the Harry Potter series marks the end of an era (and seemingly a more quiet life for the famous wizard). To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee(Image credit: Getty Images)”He turned out the light and went into Jem’s room. He would be there all night, and he would be there when Jem waked up in the morning.”A reflective and understated ending, Lee’s seminal 1960 novel ends with Atticus reading Scout a story before retreating to Jem’s room to watch over her during the night.Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare(Image credit: Getty Images)”For never was a story of more woe / Than this of Juliet and her Romeo.”Shakespeare’s 1597 tragedy ends with a rhyming couplet that succinctly summarises the entire play.The Devil Wears Prada, Lauren Weisberger (Image credit: Getty Images)”And then, while the pretty brunette girl finished singing her verse, he buzzed me through like I was someone who mattered.”The Devil Wears Prada ends in a full-circle moment for protagonist Andrea who re-enters the office building, not as a burnt-out and mistreated intern, but to interview for a new role in another magazine.Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov(Image credit: Getty Images)”I am thinking of aurochs and angels, the secret of durable pigments, prophetic sonnets, the refuge of art. And this is the only immortality you and I may share, my Lolita.”To the uninitiated, the closing lines of Nabokov’s controversial novel Lolita might seem romantic – until you learn that the object of the protagonist’s desire is a child.The House At Pooh Corner, A.A. Milne(Image credit: Getty Images)”But wherever they go, and whatever happens to them on the way, in that enchanted place on the top of the Forest a little boy and his Bear will always be playing.”The adorable but quietly tragic ending of The House At Pooh Corner pulls at the heartstrings, showing the immortal ties of childhood friendships – but the need to move on and ‘grow up’.The End of the Affair, Graham Greene(Image credit: Getty Images)”I wrote at the start that this was a record of hate, and walking there beside Henry towards the evening glass of beer, I found the one prayer that seemed to serve the winter mood: O God, You’ve done enough, You’ve robbed me of enough, I’m too tired and old to learn to love, leave me alone forever.”An unflinching portrayal of the aftermath and consequences of an affair, by the end of the book, protagonist Bendrix seeks nothing but solitude.Little Women, Louisa May Alcott(Image credit: Getty Images)”Oh, my girls, however long you may live, I never can wish you a greater happiness than this.”A satisfying closing line to a wholesome classic, Little Women ends with the March sisters all pursuing different paths in life.Life of Pi, Yann Martel(Image credit: Getty Images)”Very few castaways can claim to have survived so long at sea as Mr. Patel, and none in the company of an adult Bengal tiger.”In narrative terms, the overall ending of Life of Pi may be a little ambiguous but this succinct final line sums up the book perfectly.Don DeLillo, The Names(Image credit: Getty Images)”It was the nightmare of real things, the fallen wonder of the world.”Regarded as one of Don DeLillo’s most important novels, The Names ends with a thought-provoking line that packs a punch even without reading it in the context of the book, which is primarily a series of character studies through the lens of a group of American expats living in Athens.The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood (Image credit: Getty Images)”Are there any questions?”Most readers will be screaming “YES!” after reading Margaret Atwood’s 1985 novel, The Handmaid’s Tale. Seemingly hinting at the ambiguity of the ending of the book, readers are only left to imagine the fate that awaits Offred.Brokeback Mountain, Annie Proulx(Image credit: Getty Images)”There was some open space between what he knew and what he tried to believe, but nothing could be done about it, and if you can’t fix it, you’ve got to stand it.”Most people can probably relate (on some scale) to the ‘open space’ that Proulx depicts in this poignant closing passage. Stoic main character Ennis knows there’s no way to change the choices he’s made, so his only path is to accept them.All Quiet on the Western Front, Erich Maria Remarque(Image credit: Getty Images)”He fell in October 1918, on a day that was so quiet and still on the whole front, that the army report confined itself to the single sentence: All quiet on the Western Front. He had fallen forward and lay on the earth as though sleeping. Turning him over one saw that he could not have suffered long; his face had an expression of calm, as though almost glad the end had come.”The sombre ending of All Quiet on the Western Front switches to the third person as readers are told of protagonist Paul’s passing. The fact that he died on a ‘quiet’ day just before the war ended makes this closing passage all the more tragic, highlighting the futility of war, stripping any notions of glory.Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte(Image credit: Getty Images)”I lingered round them, under that benign sky; watched the moths fluttering among the heath, and hare-bells; listened to the soft wind breathing through the grass; and wondered how anyone could ever imagine unquiet slumbers, for the sleepers in that quiet earth.”Did Catherine and Heathcliff ever get a happily ever after? Not in life, but the final lines of Wuthering Heights imply there could be some hope for them in death.Ulysses, James Joyce(Image credit: Getty Images)”I was a Flower of the mountain yes when I put the rose in my hair like the Andalusian girls used or shall I wear a red yes and how he kissed me under the Moorish wall and I thought well as well him as another and then I asked him with my eyes to ask again yes and then he asked me would I yes to say yes my mountain flower and first I put my arms around him yes and drew him down to me so he could feel my breasts all perfume yes and his heart was going like mad and yes I said yes I will Yes.”And so concludes the 4,000-word final sentence of Ulysses, James Joyce’s 1920 modernist novel, often celebrated as being one of the best English language books ever written – and also one of the hardest to read.For obvious reasons, we’ve only shared the last section of said sentence…

A book that asks the most essential question: Why live?

In Walker Percy’s “The Moviegoer,” set in New Orleans, a young stockbroker sets off on a surprising and at times humorous quest for meaning.
When The Moviegoer won the prestigious National Book Award in 1962, it beat out future classics like Heller’s Catch-22 and J.D. Salinger’s Franny and Zoey. Controversy arose because the book’s publisher, Alfred A. Knopf, had been against publishing The Moviegoer and was put out that it had been nominated without his knowledge. Literary circles were simply baffled. How had an unknown, 42-year-old, first-time novelist managed such a feat?

No one was more perplexed than the author of The Moviegoer, Walker Percy, who after picking up his award confessed that he understood “nothing of the publishing business.”
An uneventful life upended
A native of Alabama, Walker Percy’s early life seems to have been relatively pleasant and uneventful until he was 13. That terrible year, 1929, his father committed suicide. Two years later his mother also died under mysterious circumstances. All his life Percy was convinced that she, too, had killed herself.  

Walker Percy and his two brothers were taken in by an uncle, William Alexander Percy, a poet who later wrote an acclaimed autobiography, Lanterns on the Levee. In his Uncle Will’s home Percy was exposed to serious literature and to visiting writers and intellectuals.

Fascinated by science, Percy enrolled in Columbia Medical School in New York with the intention of becoming a psychiatrist – but his life took another abrupt turn when he contracted tuberculosis while interning at Bellevue Hospital.

Walker Percy, author of The Moviegoer
Discovering the essential question
It was while hanging around a sanitarium library that Percy first encountered the writings of Søren Kierkegaard and existentialist philosophers like Gabriel Marcel.

Up to that point, Percy had been an agnostic and was convinced that science had all the important answers. Questions of meaning could not be answered by the scientific method, of course; but that simply meant that those questions were not worth asking. Stopped in his tracks by illness and haunted by the inexplicable deaths of his parents, Percy began to doubt his rationalism.

If reality was truly just a random series of events that could be explained by equations, if that’s all there was to life, then wouldn’t it make sense to follow the route chosen by his father and (possibly) his mother? To put the question in another light: Why live?
A young man on a “search”
The struggles of those years are reflected in The Moviegoer, a book that was written decades after his recovery from TB. By the time of the book’s publication, Percy had married and converted to his wife’s faith, Catholicism. He has abandoned the worlds of science and psychiatry (though he remained informed about the latest discoveries) and had embarked on a writing career.

A sincere believer in Christ and the sacramental life of the Church, Percy’s faith did not eliminate the urgent existential questions of his youth. In fact, it only made them stronger. Percy’s six novels and works of non-fiction all ask the same basic question: Why live?

In The Moviegoer, this is the question that drives Binx Bolling in what he calls his “search.” A mildly successful if unambitious stockbroker, Bolling spends most of his time womanizing and wandering the streets of New Orleans and its suburbs. As the title indicates, he also spends a lot of time in movie theaters.  

Going to the movies is just a form of escape at first. Once Binx starts seriously going about his search, however, his moviegoing becomes more urgent. Like Sherlock Holmes trying to solve a murder, Binx starts looking all around for clues that might help him understand the “why?” that suddenly drives him. He starts to notice that the glamorous characters in movies often feel more “real” to him than the ordinary people we spend our lives with. Why should that be?

Binx sees this as yet another clue that there is something very strange about the human condition.

Warwickshire readers invited to sign up for Book Bingo

AVID readers across Warwickshire are invited to sign up for Book Bingo.
The brand new reading challenge for adults launched by Warwickshire County Council’s library service begins this month and will continue throughout 2025, culminating in an exciting celebration event for participants in December.
The aim of Book Bingo is for participants to read, or listen to, books from twelve different categories on their bingo card throughout the year. For example, categories on the bingo cards may include a book to make you laugh, a book from a genre you would not normally read, or a non-fiction book.
Each time a participant completes a physical book, an eBook or an audiobook from one of the categories on their Book Bingo card, they can cross it off, until they get a ‘full house’.
Once participants complete the challenge, they can collect a badge as well as be entered into a prize draw to win £100 National Book Tokens. National Book Tokens are gift cards that can be used in bookshops in the UK and Ireland, and there are two £100 National Book Tokens available – one for library customers, and one for library staff.
The reading challenge is open to any Warwickshire Libraries members over the age of 16, and members are able to sign-up to the challenge online or in person at their local library.WCC’s customer spokesperson Coun Yousef Dahmash said: “Book Bingo is a great opportunity for adults to enjoy the many benefits of reading, from exploring new reading material and using the imagination, to discovering new interests and being able to connect with others.”
To find out more about the Book Bingo reading challenge visit www.warwickshire.gov.uk/bookbingo

Trying to write a novel? A Marrakech ‘book camp’ might unlock your literary skills

There’s nothing like shopping to form a bond between strangers. It was the glue for two women of letters who met at Lahore Literary Festival a few years ago. “We ended up hanging out, talking about books and shopping. There is a great picture of us in an old haveli. I remember your hair was bright blue, and a blue parrot settled on your shoulder,” says Bloomsbury editor Alexandra Pringle of her encounter with future creative partner, the writer and historian Alex von Tunzelmann. The blue hair is long gone, although von Tunzelmann has gone for purple ahead of their next writing masterclass.Together with their mutual friend, editor and literary consultant Faiza Khan (Pringle had hired her to run the Bloomsbury list in Delhi), they talked of opening a boutique with a curation of goods and artefacts truffled from their travels. “We realised that our love of objects is founded in storytelling – I do believe everything holds a history and a life,” says Pringle, who lives on a houseboat in Chelsea filled with Staffordshire figures, fine porcelain and ancient finds from Morocco. The idea of a writing retreat then blossomed with the input of author and journalist Nesrine Malik, and, in 2022, Silk Road Slippers was founded.Silk Road Slippers co-founders Faiza Khan, Alex von Tunzelmann and Alexandra Pringle at the hotel