Latest news with #Granta
Irish Independent
27-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Independent
Gunk by Saba Sams: nightclub boss left holding the baby after ex-husband's one-night stand
Author lives up to the hype in debut novel Gunk, with a portrayal of parenthood that is both smart and fresh Today at 21:30 The publishing world loves and thrives on fresh blood, and was especially exhilarated when Saba Spiral Sams, then 25, released Send Nudes, a coolly deadpan collection of 10 short stories. The slim but punchy collection, published in 2022, featured plenty of knockout one-liners, and covered all kinds of Gen Z preoccupations, from Tinder dating and selfies to miscarriage and shapewear. It marked Sams, who became a mother at 22, as a writer of considerable humanity, and one with plenty to say. With a place on Granta's Best of Young British Novelists in 2023, Sam's debut novel, if and when it appeared, was destined to make a splash.
Sydney Morning Herald
23-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Sydney Morning Herald
Without pregnancy cravings, the Dubai chocolate bar wouldn't have been born
We fell in love with Sayaka Murata's Convenience Store Woman – the story of Keiko Furukura, a woman in her late 30s who has worked at the same Tokyo store for 18 years – when it was published in English in 2018. In her new novel, Vanishing World (Granta, translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori; $30), Murata continues to push boundaries – cultural, narrative and those of her readers. Set in a dystopian Japan where all children are conceived via artificial insemination and sex between married couples is taboo, the story follows Amane as she navigates a society ruled by rigid norms around reproduction and relationships. Fair warning: this novel isn't for the faint-hearted. It's strange, and not as immediately approachable as Convenience Store Woman. But the weirdness serves a purpose – forcing us to question the legitimacy of social structures, and why some vanish while others remain. Melanie Kembrey WEAR / Slide show My first thought on beholding a freshly unboxed pair of Gen-FF Buckle 2 Bar shearling leather slides ($220) was, 'Cute, but how do you wear them?' (Answer: with a wide pant, ideally, and possibly a tonal ankle sock.) My second, a few seconds after placing my tired trotters inside them, was, 'If every shoe had a shearling foot-bed, no one would ever wear anything else.' And so it has come to pass; off-duty, I'm now wearing them with everything. These newcomers feel every bit as magical as they look, and it's not just about the shearling: designed by FitFlop, in consultation with Calgary's Human Performance Lab, their raison d'être is to bestow serious comfort by way of cutting-edge biomechanics. This is probably why they have a little bit of a wedge, too, because wedges make everything comfier. All of which is to say, a slide in midwinter? Hell, yes. In Chocolate Brown or Stone Beige. Sharon Bradley LISTEN / Teen dream When she was a teenager, Shima Oliaee was a contestant in America's Junior Miss pageant. Renamed Distinguished Young Women, it's an annual competition held in Mobile, Alabama, where 50 high-school girls – the best and brightest from each US state – compete to win a $US40,000 ($62,000) scholarship. Two decades later, Oliaee, who's now a journalist, returns as a judge. Her podcast, The Competition, is both a fly-on-the-wall look at the intense pressure-cooker nature of the two-week competition – which includes scholastics, fitness, talent and public speaking – and a reflective journey for Oliaee as she looks at who she was then and who she is now. With Roe v Wade being overturned mid-competition, it also trains a spotlight on what it means to be a young woman in America today. Barry Divola SHOP / Snap chat The Polaroid Flip is a retro-cool, instant film camera packed with sharp smarts and serious style ( $399). Under the flippable lid? Four automatic lenses, sonar autofocus (yep, it uses sound waves to measure the distance between camera and subject) and Polaroid's brightest flash yet. It even lets you know when your shot's overexposed. Pair it with the app for double exposures, timers and manual controls – or just point, shoot and let the magic happen. Compatible with i-Type and 600 film and USB-C-rechargeable, the Flip is built for capturing real life in bold, beautifully imperfect prints. Frances Mocnik WATCH / Friends in high places Some watch the Sex and the City sequel And Just Like That … for the fashion, the friendship and the fellas, but what you should really be keeping an eye on is the real estate. While Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker, below with Kristin Davis and Cynthia Nixon) and co will always have my heart, season three promises a big change: Carrie is no longer a West Village girl. Yep, she's swapped her one-bed, brownstone apartment with its magical closet for a $US5 million ($7.7 million), four-bed townhouse in Gramercy Park in the heart of Manhattan – a 30-odd-minute walk away (longer in Louboutins). Timing is everything. New York Magazine has lamented the takeover of Carrie's old, once-Bohemian enclave by 'West Village girls', who dress the same, only drink three cocktails a night and spend their time working out. There goes the neighbourhood and there goes our girl – forever ahead of the curve. On Max from May 30. Louise Rugendyke
The Age
23-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Age
Without pregnancy cravings, the Dubai chocolate bar wouldn't have been born
We fell in love with Sayaka Murata's Convenience Store Woman – the story of Keiko Furukura, a woman in her late 30s who has worked at the same Tokyo store for 18 years – when it was published in English in 2018. In her new novel, Vanishing World (Granta, translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori; $30), Murata continues to push boundaries – cultural, narrative and those of her readers. Set in a dystopian Japan where all children are conceived via artificial insemination and sex between married couples is taboo, the story follows Amane as she navigates a society ruled by rigid norms around reproduction and relationships. Fair warning: this novel isn't for the faint-hearted. It's strange, and not as immediately approachable as Convenience Store Woman. But the weirdness serves a purpose – forcing us to question the legitimacy of social structures, and why some vanish while others remain. Melanie Kembrey WEAR / Slide show My first thought on beholding a freshly unboxed pair of Gen-FF Buckle 2 Bar shearling leather slides ($220) was, 'Cute, but how do you wear them?' (Answer: with a wide pant, ideally, and possibly a tonal ankle sock.) My second, a few seconds after placing my tired trotters inside them, was, 'If every shoe had a shearling foot-bed, no one would ever wear anything else.' And so it has come to pass; off-duty, I'm now wearing them with everything. These newcomers feel every bit as magical as they look, and it's not just about the shearling: designed by FitFlop, in consultation with Calgary's Human Performance Lab, their raison d'être is to bestow serious comfort by way of cutting-edge biomechanics. This is probably why they have a little bit of a wedge, too, because wedges make everything comfier. All of which is to say, a slide in midwinter? Hell, yes. In Chocolate Brown or Stone Beige. Sharon Bradley LISTEN / Teen dream When she was a teenager, Shima Oliaee was a contestant in America's Junior Miss pageant. Renamed Distinguished Young Women, it's an annual competition held in Mobile, Alabama, where 50 high-school girls – the best and brightest from each US state – compete to win a $US40,000 ($62,000) scholarship. Two decades later, Oliaee, who's now a journalist, returns as a judge. Her podcast, The Competition, is both a fly-on-the-wall look at the intense pressure-cooker nature of the two-week competition – which includes scholastics, fitness, talent and public speaking – and a reflective journey for Oliaee as she looks at who she was then and who she is now. With Roe v Wade being overturned mid-competition, it also trains a spotlight on what it means to be a young woman in America today. Barry Divola SHOP / Snap chat The Polaroid Flip is a retro-cool, instant film camera packed with sharp smarts and serious style ( $399). Under the flippable lid? Four automatic lenses, sonar autofocus (yep, it uses sound waves to measure the distance between camera and subject) and Polaroid's brightest flash yet. It even lets you know when your shot's overexposed. Pair it with the app for double exposures, timers and manual controls – or just point, shoot and let the magic happen. Compatible with i-Type and 600 film and USB-C-rechargeable, the Flip is built for capturing real life in bold, beautifully imperfect prints. Frances Mocnik WATCH / Friends in high places Some watch the Sex and the City sequel And Just Like That … for the fashion, the friendship and the fellas, but what you should really be keeping an eye on is the real estate. While Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker, below with Kristin Davis and Cynthia Nixon) and co will always have my heart, season three promises a big change: Carrie is no longer a West Village girl. Yep, she's swapped her one-bed, brownstone apartment with its magical closet for a $US5 million ($7.7 million), four-bed townhouse in Gramercy Park in the heart of Manhattan – a 30-odd-minute walk away (longer in Louboutins). Timing is everything. New York Magazine has lamented the takeover of Carrie's old, once-Bohemian enclave by 'West Village girls', who dress the same, only drink three cocktails a night and spend their time working out. There goes the neighbourhood and there goes our girl – forever ahead of the curve. On Max from May 30. Louise Rugendyke
Times
06-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Times
Young motherhood reimagined by an exciting new literary voice
Everyone loves a young writer. They punch their way into the literary world, demanding respect for the chutzpah of penning 90,000 words in their twenties. We loved Martin Amis for writing The Rachel Papers at 23. We had hysterics when Zadie Smith published White Teeth at 21. And much of Sally Rooney's stardom can probably be put down to the fact that she was a sprightly 27 when Conversations with Friends appeared on our shelves. Now we have Saba Sams. She was just 26 when she won the BBC national short story award and the Edge Hill short story prize for Send Nudes, the titular story in her published collection. The next year Sams made it on to Granta's list of the best young
Daily Mail
01-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
'Heart-rending and compulsive': The new Literary Fiction you need to read - GUNK by Saba Sams, THE NAMES by Florence Knapp, STEALING DAD by Sofka Zinovieff
GUNK by Saba Sams (Bloomsbury Circus £16.99, 240pp) Sams's debut story collection, Send Nudes, earned its then 26-year-old author a spot on Granta's Best of Young British Novelists list in 2023, so it's gratifying that this, her sensitive first novel, delivers. Gunk is the grungy Brighton nightclub where Jules works. She's divorced from its man-child proprietor, Leon, but at 20-something longs for a baby. Which is where 19-year-old bartender Nim comes in. The two are soon friends, and when Nim falls pregnant after a night with Leon, the equation seems obvious: she will just give the child over to Jules. But, as we know from a frame narrative, things don't go to plan. The plots unfolds with a simple inevitability that almost disguises Sams's craft, although there's no missing the brilliance of her scintillating turns of phrase. Imbued with an affecting authenticity of feeling, this is an involving exploration of life, love and family forged beyond labels by one of Gen Z's sharpest observers. THE NAMES by Florence Knapp (Phoenix £16.99, 352pp) The Names is available now from the Mail Bookshop Publishers scrambled to sign up this debut – which also sparked huge auctions internationally – and it certainly boasts an attention-grabbing conceit. In 1987, Cora goes to register her son's name: Gordon, like his father and grandfather before him. But Cora's seemingly kindly GP husband is in fact a violent abuser. Unwilling to saddle her son with such baggage, Cora weighs whether to risk rebelling. What follows are three different narratives: one in which the child does indeed become Gordon; one in which he is christened Bear by his loving sister and one wherein Cora's preferred name, Julian, wins out. With the Life After Life-style narrative proceeding in seven-year leaps, it's a pretext to explore how the lives of the trio play out in the long shadow of terrible trauma. Knapp doesn't shy from emotional gut-punches, but her heart-rending and compulsive tale is ultimately life-affirming. STEALING DAD by Sofka Zinovieff (Corsair £20, 304pp) By the time 70-something Greek artist Alekos dies in London, he's accumulated seven children. But plans for a big family funeral are thwarted by his sixth and final wife, who insists on being the only mourner. Outraged, the far-flung siblings come together and – in the wake of an enlightening micro-dosing session – decide to steal their dad's body and drive him to Scotland for a suitably theatrical send-off. This is the loosest of quest narratives, the free-wheeling style and roving point of view fitting as the clan search for a shape for their grief. I often felt like a bystander as the characters poured over their fractured past, but, if the stakes never felt particularly high, the warmth and sympathy between the bereaved radiates out to the reader.
