After one of the most divisive and contentious campaigns in the country’s history, today America goes to the polls to elect the next leader of the free world. The rest of us watch and wait with bated breath. After a year of political turmoil around the world, nobody can predict the result of today’s vote. So on the day of the most nail-biting political event of the year, distract yourself with our 4 by 4th list of essential reading (in no particular order) for exploring the real issues facing the most powerful nation on earth, and understanding the enigma that is the United States
Today is Friday, the day of the usual Food From 4th post, plus, we’re getting ready for Christmas. How better to combine the two than to bring you a 4x4th Estate on Festive Feasts? Christmas can be an event, in literature, where the times that are supposed to be good, go ever so slightly bad. Read more…
Black Friday sparks a kind of consumerist frenzy, either performed privately – through the careful monitoring of numerous baskets across countless online retailers, or publicly – racing to your local Tesco’s at the stroke of midnight, lugging your widescreen home in the early hours, cradled uneasily in the boot of your car.
We wanted to offer a calming antidote to all that stress, in the form of Jonathan Franzen’s Purity.
We have four absolutely beautiful signed, extremely limited-edition versions of his bestselling book, wrapped up in gleaming black and gold. These are four of a grand total of fifteen, and are THE ONLY ones in circulation in the entire world – just the kind of money-can’t-buy offering to counteract the consumerist tide.
To enter the competition, just fill in the form below, and we’ll announce the winner next Friday. Or you could double your chances… we’re giving one away on twitter just for today – follow @4thEstateBooks and look out for further instructions.
If you’re still hankering after the white version, you can buy it here, or from the usual suspects.
Introducing RE4DINGS: a new regular video series from 4th Estate, in which our authors read 1 to 4 pages of their choice from their latest book. You heard it here first.
We sat down with Jonathan Franzen to talk about his highly anticipated follow-up to The Corrections and Freedom. Watch him discuss his new novel Purity below: Read more…
This week the office has been blissfully quiet, as the staff of 4th Estate have begun to migrate for the summer. The destinations are many and varied – from birdwatching on Lesbos to partying on Ibiza. But what books are we packing into our suitcases, rucksacks and bumbags? All is revealed in this list of our Holiday Reads…
Interview courtesy of our friends at FSG’s Work In Progress. For more information, interviews and extracts visit http://www.fsgworkinprogress.com/
This year’s Book Expo America launched with a marquee conversation between Jonathan Franzen and critic Laura Miller. The two sat down in front of a packed crowd to discuss the writing of Franzen’s latest novel, Purity (coming September 1st). Their conversation ranged from the story of the book’s name to its eponymous protagonist, and to the importance of climbing one’s own mountains as a writer. The following transcription of the conversation has been edited for length. Read more…
It is a rare thing to be able to watch literary history unfold before your eyes. We can only wonder what it would have been like, with the benefit of hindsight, to be present for the worlds reaction to writers such as Charlotte Bronte and James Joyce, to see them being ignored or even damned. There are certain moments in literature that, without exaggeration, define the future of the medium as a whole, and Jonathan Franzen’s 2001 publication of The Corrections exists as a catalyst for such a moment. Read more…
