By Alex Edwards
This year marks the 30th anniversary of GQ’s Hay Festival, a literary event in Hay-on-Wye from 25 May – 4 June that puts all others to shame. Writers and readers come together to collaborate over published stories and innovative new ideas through a series of talks and panels throughout the week. We talked with Olivia Cole, the GQ literary editor and one of our favorite book recommenders, for the scoop on what new reads were taking center stage this year.
Conversations with Friends
With subtle humor and precise intelligence, Sally Rooney’s debut novel Conversations with Friends is a lively commentary on the dangers of female friendship. With themes like jealousy, lust and adulthood, the story follows two university best friends – Frances and Bobbi – as they meet and fall into the world of an older couple – Melissa and Nick. Frances and Nick’s flirting allows the two to grow intimately close, hurting Frances’s other relationships, including her one with Bobbi. With smart, humorous dialogue and an unapologetic new perspective, critics are calling Conversations with Friends an “exceptional debut,” “an addictive read,” and “astonishing, heart-rending and perfect.” Rooney currently resides in Dublin, and was once Europe’s No 1 student debater. As inspiration for the book, she talked with some of her intense friends that like to talk, and had conversations of feminism, gender, and politics. The book will be released on 11 July. It can be pre-ordered here.
Anything is Possible
New York Times bestselling author Elizabeth Strout stuns the literary world again with her new novel, Anything is Possible. By interconnecting a series of different characters’ stories, the book weaves together a larger truth of small-town life. Each character deals with issues of love and loss, with one of them being Lucy Barton, the star of one of Strout’s previous masterpieces, My Name Is Lucy Barton. With conversations that mirror how people actually talk and a deep insight into the various range of emotions of human beings, Anything is Possible is a commentary on the desire of most to be understood by others. Critics are saying “Strout hits the target yet again,” it “confirms Strout as one of our most grace-filled, and graceful, writers,” and “Strout, always good, just keeps getting better.” The novel was published by Viking and can be purchased online here.