Chris Power @chrispower.bsky.social · 6hAnne Carson yesterday, Navi Pillay’s peace prize today. The Nobels are on point right now 030
Chris Power @chrispower.bsky.social · 08/10/2026Anne Carson, newly minted Nobel Prize in Literature laureate, once published the greatest ever author bio 450393
Reposted by Chris PowerNew York Review Books @nyrb-imprints.bsky.social · 25/09/2026"The book is conversational and inclusive but, crucially, the material isn’t diluted; this is hard stuff, it admits, but let’s have a crack at it together." 0132
Reposted by Chris PowerChris Power @chrispower.bsky.social · 02/10/2026Discover your opinion of Mary Ruefle in just 53 words observer.co.uk/culture/book... 181
Chris Power @chrispower.bsky.social · 02/10/2026Discover your opinion of Mary Ruefle in just 53 words observer.co.uk/culture/book... 181
Chris Power @chrispower.bsky.social · 25/09/2026My paperback of the week in @theobserveruk.bsky.social is Simon Critchley’s brilliant deep dive into Heidegger’s Being and Time, “the most important philosophical book of the last 100 years”. Excerpts below, whole thing here: observer.co.uk/culture/book... 1191
Reposted by Chris PowerChris Power @chrispower.bsky.social · 19/09/2026My latest paperback of the week column for @theobserveruk.bsky.social looks at Omar El Akkad's One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This. observer.co.uk/culture/book...observer.co.ukOmar el Akkad lays bare the west’s betrayal of GazaOne Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This argues that the war’s catastrophic loss of life has been met with a cowardly and self-serving response 174
Chris Power @chrispower.bsky.social · 19/09/2026or saying people who aren't from the region can't understand and shouldn't comment. All those people should read this book. They probably won't, but they should have the courage to see if their convictions stand up to El Akkad's arguments (spoiler: not a chance). 030
Chris Power @chrispower.bsky.social · 19/09/2026Innocent Palestinians are still being murdered (not just children, but innocent women and men too), and people are still looking away, or saying it's complicated, or qualifying the term genocide, or keeping their head down for the sake of their job, 130
Chris Power @chrispower.bsky.social · 19/09/2026Publishing lag time being what it is, it's a book the author thought - hoped - might go out of date in the year between its writing and its hardback publication. But even in the year between that and this, its paperback edition, it remains entirely, sickeningly relevant. 120
Chris Power @chrispower.bsky.social · 19/09/2026My latest paperback of the week column for @theobserveruk.bsky.social looks at Omar El Akkad's One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This. observer.co.uk/culture/book...observer.co.ukOmar el Akkad lays bare the west’s betrayal of GazaOne Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This argues that the war’s catastrophic loss of life has been met with a cowardly and self-serving response 174
Chris Power @chrispower.bsky.social · 18/09/2026When I’ve read the rest of the book I’ll let you know 100
Chris Power @chrispower.bsky.social · 18/09/2026I’ve never read it. And on this evidence I won’t! 000
Chris Power @chrispower.bsky.social · 17/09/2026Ahead of the publication of his new novel why not read Donald Antrim’s fantastic story collection, The Emerald Light in the Air - the UK sales figures for which are a stain on our literary culture www.theguardian.com/books/2014/n...theguardian.comThe Emerald Light in the Air by Donald Antrim – ‘Takes those who appear monstrous and reveals their humanity’Chris Power: A complex and powerfully emotive collection that tackles psychological derangement with elegance and grace 052
Chris Power @chrispower.bsky.social · 17/09/2026total number of named & unnamed speaking characters in 20 19th-century British novels 581
Chris Power @chrispower.bsky.social · 17/09/2026Late in life, Martin Heidegger became obsessed with Franz Beckenbauer 121
Chris Power @chrispower.bsky.social · 15/09/2026I hope Ed Sheeran, and indeed many, many more people, read Omar El Akkad’s One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This 0194
Reposted by Chris PowerChris Power @chrispower.bsky.social · 13/09/2026This incredibly clear-eyed take was published in the New Yorker on 16 September 2001 0225
Chris Power @chrispower.bsky.social · 13/09/2026This incredibly clear-eyed take was published in the New Yorker on 16 September 2001 0225
Reposted by Chris PowerThe Observer @theobserveruk.bsky.social · 11/09/2026Why poetry should be difficult In On Difficulty (and Poetry), Lavinia Greenlaw examines her art in pithy and profound ways, drawing on some of its greatest – as well as unsung – practitioners ✍️ @chrispower.bsky.social bit.ly/46ifyXEbit.lyWhy poetry should be difficult | The ObserverIn On Difficulty (and Poetry), Lavinia Greenlaw examines her art in pithy and profound ways, drawing on some of its greatest – as well as unsung – practitioners 032
Chris Power @chrispower.bsky.social · 01/09/2026Stuart! It’s been way too long. As I hope you’ll acknowledge, the airport thing is far from being my central criticism 100
Chris Power @chrispower.bsky.social · 01/09/2026I reviewed Switzy for @theguardian.com www.theguardian.com/books/2026/a...theguardian.comSwitzy by Emma Cline review – this Booker-listed account of a man’s last days is profoundly movingStruggling with Alzheimer’s, the central character sets out on his final journey to a euthanasia clinic 3151
Reposted by Chris PowerChris Power @chrispower.bsky.social · 28/08/2026Elizabeth McCracken’s 10/10 punctuation rankings 1197
Reposted by Chris PowerChris Power @chrispower.bsky.social · 31/08/2026Pro reviewing tip: don’t do the thing you’re criticising a writer for doing 0223
Chris Power @chrispower.bsky.social · 31/08/2026Pro reviewing tip: don’t do the thing you’re criticising a writer for doing 0223
Reposted by Chris PowerThe Observer @theobserveruk.bsky.social · 28/08/2026John Healy, the writer the literary establishment tried to erase His 1988 memoir of homelessness and alcoholism, The Grass Arena, was lauded one minute and pulped the next. Nearly 40 years on, Healy, now 83, is setting the record straight bit.ly/4zJUpTCbit.lyJohn Healy, the writer the literary establishment tried t...His 1988 memoir of homelessness and alcoholism, The Grass Arena, was lauded one minute and pulped the next. Nearly 40 years on, Healy, now 83, is setting the record straight 063
Chris Power @chrispower.bsky.social · 28/08/2026I’m not saying it’s not rare, only plausible. But I’ll bet any amount of money that you know a lot more about poetry than I do so I’ll happily defer 110
Chris Power @chrispower.bsky.social · 28/08/2026Elizabeth McCracken’s 10/10 punctuation rankings 1197
Reposted by Chris PowerThe Observer @theobserveruk.bsky.social · 21/08/2026Paperback of the week: The Red Book of Farewells by Pirkko Saisio This dreamlike work of autofiction completes the Finnish author’s trilogy and explores her sexual coming of age in repressive 1970s Helsinki ✍️ @chrispower.bsky.social bit.ly/3U9SGGXbit.lyPaperback of the week: The Red Book of Farewells by Pirkko SaisioThis dreamlike work of autofiction completes the Finnish author’s trilogy and explores her sexual coming of age in repressive 1970s Helsinki 021
Chris Power @chrispower.bsky.social · 14/08/2026A really interesting lost 80s novel observer.co.uk/culture/book... 021
Reposted by Chris PowerLondon Review of Books @lrb.co.uk · 11/08/2026‘It’s unexpected that the price of Westinghouse, Paramount Pictures and Svenska Handelsbanken stocks should be one of the most interesting parts of a novel that includes angels, invisible bridges and rooftop battles.’ @chrispower.bsky.social reads Francis Spufford. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...lrb.co.ukChris Power · Egg in an Eggcup: Francis Spufford’s ‘Nonesuch’In Francis Spufford’s Nonesuch it isn’t only the author but his characters who can change history. Iris and Geoff... 043
Reposted by Chris PowerLondon Review of Books @lrb.co.uk · 08/08/2026‘𝘕𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘶𝘤𝘩 is an enjoyable adventure story, but for all its peril and conflict, and the trauma in Iris’s past that is withheld until the end of the book, the stakes are never high.’ @chrispower.bsky.social reads 𝘕𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘶𝘤𝘩 by Francis Spufford. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...lrb.co.ukChris Power · Egg in an Eggcup: Francis Spufford’s ‘Nonesuch’In Francis Spufford’s Nonesuch it isn’t only the author but his characters who can change history. Iris and Geoff... 032
Chris Power @chrispower.bsky.social · 10/08/2026Reading this taught me 1) about the extraordinary physics prodigy Ettore Majorana, whose story reads like something straight out of When We Cease to Understand the World, and 2) what a nutcase Edward Teller was (a good namer of bombs though: Sundial and Gnomon!) observer.co.uk/culture/book...observer.co.ukPaperback of the week: Destroyer of Worlds by Frank CloseA fascinating, generations-spanning history of the race to harness nuclear power into a weapon, from theoretical physics to the Trinity Test and first ‘Super Bomb’ 272
Reposted by Chris PowerLondon Review of Books @lrb.co.uk · 07/08/2026‘Put your characters up a tree and throw rocks at them, the old piece of writing advice goes. Spufford reaches immediately for a ladder.’ @chrispower.bsky.social reads Francis Spufford’s 𝘕𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘶𝘤𝘩. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...lrb.co.ukChris Power · Egg in an Eggcup: Francis Spufford’s ‘Nonesuch’In Francis Spufford’s Nonesuch it isn’t only the author but his characters who can change history. Iris and Geoff... 062
Chris Power @chrispower.bsky.social · 27/07/2026Incredible to witness all the love in the room for M John Harrison @foylesforbooks.bsky.social last week. The End of Everything is the work of a master who continues to press against the borders of narrative. 080