As the book world's most literary season approaches, the industry still awaits the year's big literary publication.
While critics have celebrated Mohsin Hamid's Exit West, George Saunders' Lincoln in the Bardo and other works, no 2017 releases have approached the sales or the impact of such older titles as Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale and George Orwell's 1984. Publishers wonder if it's a familiar syndrome, the Trump effect, with the public too caught up in the headlines to focus on new and challenging fiction.
"People are indeed distracted, and there's no sign of it letting up," says Paul Bogaards, an executive vice president and executive director of publicity at the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. "Many are weary from their social feeds — mentally exhausted — and some, perhaps, are simply choosing to binge watch their favorite television series and eat copious amounts of ice cream rather than read a contemporary, literary novel."
"We've been disappointed in sales, and other publishers have been disappointed," said Scribner publisher and senior vice president Nan Graham, who hopes to break the spell this fall with new fiction from prize-winners Jennifer Egan and Jesmyn Ward. "I think it's harder for new books to break through because people are reading the books that other people are reading. They're looking to talk to other people about something they have in common. And that drive seems more intense right now. Is that the Trump effect? Sure."
Bogaards says good books can "still surface and stick" and readers able and willing can look forward to some of the most acclaimed writers of recent years. Egan's Manhattan Beach is her first novel since the Pulitzer Prize-winning A Visit from the Goon Squad; Ward's Sing, Unburied, Sing, her first novel since the National Book Award winning Salvage the Bones; and James McBride's book of short stories, Five-Carat Soul, his first fiction since winning the National Book Award for The Good Lord Bird. Louise Erdrich, Celeste Ng, Salman Rushdie, Carmen Maria Machado and debut novelist Gabriel Tallent also have books coming. Pulitzer Prize winner Jeffrey Eugenides, whose novels include Middlesex and The Marriage Plot, will release his first story collection, Fresh Complaint.
"In some ways, it's harder to write a short story than a novel," Eugenides said. "There's no room for elaboration or expansion, both of which come naturally to the novelist. In creative writing courses, of course, we start students off writing short stories because they're more manageable. But it's like asking someone to pilot a jet on his first flying lesson."
If literary fiction doesn't produce any major hits, other books seem likely bets. John Green's Turtles All the Way Down is his first novel since the blockbuster The Fault of Our Stars. Dan Brown has sent protagonist Robert Langdon to Spain in his thriller Origin and Stephen King and son Owen King have teamed up on Sleeping Beauties. An elderly George Smiley appears in John le Carre's A Legacy of Spies, Lee Child's latest Jack Reacher novel is The Midnight Line and the late Stieg Larsson's Millennium Series continues with The Girl Who Takes an Eye for an Eye, by David Lagercrantz.
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Read more:
A Legacy of Spies: Le Carré’s George Smiley is back
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Nonfiction releases range from astronaut Scott Kelly's Endurance to Toni Morrison's The Origin of Others, a book of lectures that includes an introduction by Ta-Nehisi Coates. Sally Quinn's Finding Magic features memories of her marriage to Washington Post executive editor Ben Bradlee, who died in 2014. Former Rep. John Dingell of Michigan, 91 years old, looks back in his memoir The Dean: The Best Seat in the House, from FDR to Obama.
Several books about presidents past and current should be in the news this fall, notably Hillary Clinton's What Happened, in which she has promised a thorough and candid recounting of her shocking loss in 2016 to Trump. Alec Baldwin and Kurt Andersen have collaborated on the presumably fictional You Can't Spell America Without Me: The Really Tremendous Inside Story of My Fantastic First Year as President Donald J. Trump (A So-Called Parody). The president's first wife, Ivana Trump, will share memories of their three children in Raising Trump. Katy Tur's Unbelievable: My Front-Row Seat to the Craziest Campaign in American History is the NBC television reporter's take on covering the Trump campaign and being called "disgraceful" among other insults from the Republican candidate. Barbara Pierce Bush and Jenna Bush Hager describe life as the daughters and granddaughters of presidents in Sisters First.
Ron Chernow, whose Alexander Hamilton book is the basis for the Broadway musical, returns with a 900-page biography of Ulysses Grant. Barack Obama's vice president, Joseph Biden, reflects on his White House aspirations and his son Beau's death in Promise Me, Dad. Former White House photographer Pete Souza compiles the recent past in Obama: An Intimate Portrait. Coates' We Were Eight Years in Power: An American Tragedy chronicles life under Obama, with a subtitle pointing to Trump.
Coates, winner in 2015 of the National Book Award for Between the World and Me, is among many prize-winning authors with new nonfiction works. Mike Wallace's Greater Gotham: A History of New York City from 1898 to 1919, is the sequel to the historian's acclaimed Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898. Anne Applebaum has completed Red Famine: Stalin's War on Ukraine and Stephen Greenblatt has written The Rise and Fall of Adam and Eve, a history of how the Biblical creation story has been interpreted. The Vietnam War: An Intimate History, by Ken Burns and Geoffrey C. Ward, is a companion to Burns' television documentary that Ward completed as Trump was taking office.
"I'd get up at 6:30 in the morning and work until 8 at night and I was in the world of Richard Nixon," Ward said. "And then I would have dinner and turn on the TV and I was in the world of Donald Trump.
"It was not a happy period for me."
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Read more:
Fall into a good book: autumn reads
Book review: Jean Twenge’s latest spotlights dangers of being a part of the smartphone generation
Alternative tales of super stardom: a look at biographies that give a different slant on fame
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Tuesday's fixtures
Kyrgyzstan v Qatar, 5.45pm
Essentials
The flights
Whether you trek after mountain gorillas in Rwanda, Uganda or the Congo, the most convenient international airport is in Rwanda’s capital city, Kigali. There are direct flights from Dubai a couple of days a week with RwandAir. Otherwise, an indirect route is available via Nairobi with Kenya Airways. Flydubai flies to Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo, via Entebbe in Uganda. Expect to pay from US$350 (Dh1,286) return, including taxes.
The tours
Superb ape-watching tours that take in all three gorilla countries mentioned above are run by Natural World Safaris. In September, the company will be operating a unique Ugandan ape safari guided by well-known primatologist Ben Garrod.
In the Democratic Republic of Congo, local operator Kivu Travel can organise pretty much any kind of safari throughout the Virunga National Park and elsewhere in eastern Congo.
Election pledges on migration
CDU: "Now is the time to control the German borders and enforce strict border rejections"
SPD: "Border closures and blanket rejections at internal borders contradict the spirit of a common area of freedom"
A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
Rating: 3/5
Singham Again
Director: Rohit Shetty
Stars: Ajay Devgn, Kareena Kapoor Khan, Ranveer Singh, Akshay Kumar, Tiger Shroff, Deepika Padukone
Rating: 3/5
Company profile
Name: The Concept
Founders: Yadhushan Mahendran, Maria Sobh and Muhammad Rijal
Based: Abu Dhabi
Founded: 2017
Number of employees: 7
Sector: Aviation and space industry
Funding: $250,000
Future plans: Looking to raise $1 million investment to boost expansion and develop new products
Results
6pm: Dubai Trophy – Conditions (TB) $100,000 (Turf) 1,200m
Winner: Silent Speech, William Buick (jockey), Charlie Appleby
(trainer)
6.35pm: Jumeirah Derby Trial – Conditions (TB) $60,000 (T)
1,800m
Winner: Island Falcon, Frankie Dettori, Saeed bin Suroor
7.10pm: UAE 2000 Guineas Trial – Conditions (TB) $60,000 (Dirt)
1,400m
Winner: Rawy, Mickael Barzalona, Salem bin Ghadayer
7.45pm: Al Rashidiya – Group 2 (TB) $180,000 (T) 1,800m
Winner: Desert Fire, Hector Crouch, Saeed bin Suroor
8.20pm: Al Fahidi Fort – Group 2 (TB) $180,000 (T) 1,400m
Winner: Naval Crown, William Buick, Charlie Appleby
8.55pm: Dubawi Stakes – Group 3 (TB) $150,000 (D) 1,200m
Winner: Al Tariq, Pat Dobbs, Doug Watsons
9.30pm: Aliyah – Rated Conditions (TB) $80,000 (D) 2,000m
Winner: Dubai Icon, Patrick Cosgrave, Saeed bin Suroor
Pathaan
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EDirector%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Siddharth%20Anand%C2%A0%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EStars%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Shah%20Rukh%20Khan%2C%20Deepika%20Padukone%2C%20John%20Abraham%C2%A0%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ERating%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%203%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
6.30pm Meydan Classic Trial US$100,000 (Turf) 1,400m
Winner Bella Fever, Dane O’Neill (jockey), Mike de Kock (trainer).
7.05pm Handicap $135,000 (T) 1,400m
Winner Woven, Harry Bentley, David Simcock.
7.40pm UAE 2000 Guineas Group Three $250,000 (Dirt) 1,600m
Winner Fore Left, William Buick, Doug O’Neill.
8.15pm Dubai Sprint Listed Handicap $175,000 (T) 1,200m
Winner Rusumaat, Dane O’Neill, Musabah Al Muhairi.
8.50pm Al Maktoum Challenge Round-2 Group Two $450,000 (D) 1,900m
Winner Benbatl, Christophe Soumillon, Saeed bin Suroor.
9.25pm Handicap $135,000 (T) 1,800m
Winner Art Du Val, William Buick, Charlie Appleby.
10pm Handicap $135,000 (T) 1,400m
Winner Beyond Reason, William Buick, Charlie Appleby.
10 tips for entry-level job seekers
- Have an up-to-date, professional LinkedIn profile. If you don’t have a LinkedIn account, set one up today. Avoid poor-quality profile pictures with distracting backgrounds. Include a professional summary and begin to grow your network.
- Keep track of the job trends in your sector through the news. Apply for job alerts at your dream organisations and the types of jobs you want – LinkedIn uses AI to share similar relevant jobs based on your selections.
- Double check that you’ve highlighted relevant skills on your resume and LinkedIn profile.
- For most entry-level jobs, your resume will first be filtered by an applicant tracking system for keywords. Look closely at the description of the job you are applying for and mirror the language as much as possible (while being honest and accurate about your skills and experience).
- Keep your CV professional and in a simple format – make sure you tailor your cover letter and application to the company and role.
- Go online and look for details on job specifications for your target position. Make a list of skills required and set yourself some learning goals to tick off all the necessary skills one by one.
- Don’t be afraid to reach outside your immediate friends and family to other acquaintances and let them know you are looking for new opportunities.
- Make sure you’ve set your LinkedIn profile to signal that you are “open to opportunities”. Also be sure to use LinkedIn to search for people who are still actively hiring by searching for those that have the headline “I’m hiring” or “We’re hiring” in their profile.
- Prepare for online interviews using mock interview tools. Even before landing interviews, it can be useful to start practising.
- Be professional and patient. Always be professional with whoever you are interacting with throughout your search process, this will be remembered. You need to be patient, dedicated and not give up on your search. Candidates need to make sure they are following up appropriately for roles they have applied.
Arda Atalay, head of Mena private sector at LinkedIn Talent Solutions, Rudy Bier, managing partner of Kinetic Business Solutions and Ben Kinerman Daltrey, co-founder of KinFitz
German intelligence warnings
- 2002: "Hezbollah supporters feared becoming a target of security services because of the effects of [9/11] ... discussions on Hezbollah policy moved from mosques into smaller circles in private homes." Supporters in Germany: 800
- 2013: "Financial and logistical support from Germany for Hezbollah in Lebanon supports the armed struggle against Israel ... Hezbollah supporters in Germany hold back from actions that would gain publicity." Supporters in Germany: 950
- 2023: "It must be reckoned with that Hezbollah will continue to plan terrorist actions outside the Middle East against Israel or Israeli interests." Supporters in Germany: 1,250
Source: Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Abu Dhabi GP schedule
Friday: First practice - 1pm; Second practice - 5pm
Saturday: Final practice - 2pm; Qualifying - 5pm
Sunday: Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix (55 laps) - 5.10pm
Three tips from La Perle's performers
1 The kind of water athletes drink is important. Gwilym Hooson, a 28-year-old British performer who is currently recovering from knee surgery, found that out when the company was still in Studio City, training for 12 hours a day. “The physio team was like: ‘Why is everyone getting cramps?’ And then they realised we had to add salt and sugar to the water,” he says.
2 A little chocolate is a good thing. “It’s emergency energy,” says Craig Paul Smith, La Perle’s head coach and former Cirque du Soleil performer, gesturing to an almost-empty open box of mini chocolate bars on his desk backstage.
3 Take chances, says Young, who has worked all over the world, including most recently at Dragone’s show in China. “Every time we go out of our comfort zone, we learn a lot about ourselves,” she says.
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
WHAT IS A BLACK HOLE?
1. Black holes are objects whose gravity is so strong not even light can escape their pull
2. They can be created when massive stars collapse under their own weight
3. Large black holes can also be formed when smaller ones collide and merge
4. The biggest black holes lurk at the centre of many galaxies, including our own
5. Astronomers believe that when the universe was very young, black holes affected how galaxies formed
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
COMPANY PROFILE
Initial investment: Undisclosed
Investment stage: Series A
Investors: Core42
Current number of staff: 47
How to help
Call the hotline on 0502955999 or send "thenational" to the following numbers:
2289 - Dh10
2252 - Dh50
6025 - Dh20
6027 - Dh100
6026 - Dh200
