‘One battle with an army of the undead is enough for me’ … Emma Glass. Photograph: Sarah Lee/The Guardian
Emma Glass
Books
that
made me
Emma Glass: ‘Game of Thrones is overrated. Give me The Lord of the Rings any day'
The author on the allure of Truman Capote, rereading Susan Hill and having her life changed by Kafka The book I am currently reading
Friday 8 February 2019
I’m not usually a slow reader but I have been savouring each luxurious line of Swan Song, Kelleigh Greenberg-Jephcott’s novel about Truman Capote, set in the 1970s. It’s long, but I am fully immersed in the glamour of his society.
The book that changed my life
Franz Kafka’s Metamorphosis troubled me at first because it broke all the rules. There was no explanation, no sympathy only absurdity and suffering. This is the book that made me realise I could write through a distorted lens and still convey truth.
The books I think are most overrated
The Song of Ice and Fire series by George RR Martin. One battle with an army of the undead is enough for me. Give me The Lord of the Rings any day.
Emma Glass |
The book I wish I’d written
I don’t know how Carmen Maria Machado manages to modernise gothic fiction so distinctively and sensually, but she does in her beautiful collection Her Body and Other Parties.
The book I’m most ashamed not to have read
Zadie Smith’s White Teeth seems to have passed me by.
The last book that made me cry
When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalinithi. I usually steer clear of books about medicine but Kalinithi’s memoir offers a heartbreaking perspective on what it feels like to step out of the role of doctor, directly into the shoes of a patient.
The last book that made me laugh
French Exit by Patrick deWitt. The protagonist believes her cat is possessed by the spirit of her dead husband, Frank. The cat is called Small Frank!
The book that most influenced me
Lunar Park by Bret Easton Ellis profoundly affected how I see the reader and understand the power of the first-person narrator.
The book I couldn’t finish
Most of Dickens. I love the few Dickens novels I have read (Great Expectations, Hard Times), but the sheer weight of Bleak House makes me feel queasy and inadequate. All of those words, so many words, would be lost on me.
My earliest reading memory
Peace at Last by Jill Murphy. I’ve never been a good sleeper and on all of those nights I lay awake I can remember considering creeping downstairs to sleep out in the car, but it always seemed too far for my little tired legs.
My reading guilty pleasure
I have read The Woman in Black by Susan Hill many times and it never fails to spook me.
The book I most often give as a gift
Tenth of December by George Saunders. Absurd, funny, upsetting, it’s utter perfection.
• Peach by Emma Glass is published in paperback by Bloomsbury. She has been longlisted for the International Dylan Thomas prize.
22 September 2017
Books that made me / Franzen / 'I defy anyone to finish it without wetting the pages with tears'
29 September 2017
Philip Pullman / ‘The book I wish I’d written? My next one’
Books that made me / Franzen / 'I defy anyone to finish it without wetting the pages with tears'
29 September 2017
Philip Pullman / ‘The book I wish I’d written? My next one’
13 October 2017
Eimear McBride / ‘I can never finish Dickens – it’s sacrilege’
20 October 2017
Shami Chakrabarti / ‘Harry Potter offers a great metaphor for the war on terror’
20 October 2017
Shami Chakrabarti / ‘Harry Potter offers a great metaphor for the war on terror’
1 December 2017
Penelope Lively / My debt to roasted grasshopper with ladybird sauce
Penelope Lively / My debt to roasted grasshopper with ladybird sauce
2018
25 May 201827 July 2018
Richard Powers: ‘I love sci-fi. The more 10-foot reptilians, the better’28 september 2018
Robin Robertson: ‘The poetry world is polarised. I’m in the middle, vaguely appalled’
18 January 2019
Margaret Drabble / ‘Lee Child does all the things I could never do. I’m awestruck’
1 February 2019
Leïla Sliman / ‘I’ve always been fascinated by Marilyn Monroe'
8 February 2019
Emma Glass / ‘Game of Thrones is overrated. Give me The Lord of the Rings any day'
1 March 2019
Tom Rachman / ‘Does every author read faster than I do?’
Robin Robertson: ‘The poetry world is polarised. I’m in the middle, vaguely appalled’
2019
18 January 2019
Margaret Drabble / ‘Lee Child does all the things I could never do. I’m awestruck’
1 February 2019
Leïla Sliman / ‘I’ve always been fascinated by Marilyn Monroe'
8 February 2019
Emma Glass / ‘Game of Thrones is overrated. Give me The Lord of the Rings any day'
1 March 2019
Tom Rachman / ‘Does every author read faster than I do?’
8 March 2019
Ben Okri / ‘I began Don Quixote as one person and finished as another’
17 April 2020
Sally Rooney / 'I want the next thing I do to be the best thing I’ve ever done'
Ben Okri / ‘I began Don Quixote as one person and finished as another’
2020
17 April 2020
Sally Rooney / 'I want the next thing I do to be the best thing I’ve ever done'
1 May 2020
Edna O'Brien / 'Reading Charles Darwin dislodged my religious education'
24 May 2020
André Aciman: 'I couldn’t finish Moby-Dick. I lacked the patience'
Edna O'Brien / 'Reading Charles Darwin dislodged my religious education'
24 May 2020
André Aciman: 'I couldn’t finish Moby-Dick. I lacked the patience'
9 October 2020
Neil Gaiman / 'Narnia made me want to write, to do that magic trick'
Emma Cline / ‘Reading anything because you “should” doesn’t make sense to me’
6 August 2021
Damon Galgut / ‘After reading Roald Dahl, the world never looked the same’
9 August 2021
Frank Cottrell-Boyce / ‘I read Adrian Mole every year, it gets funnier each time’
13 August 2021
Anuk Arudpragasam / ‘There’s a lot of laughter in my life, but not when I read’
Neil Gaiman / 'Narnia made me want to write, to do that magic trick'
2021
9 April 2021Emma Cline / ‘Reading anything because you “should” doesn’t make sense to me’
6 August 2021
Damon Galgut / ‘After reading Roald Dahl, the world never looked the same’
9 August 2021
Frank Cottrell-Boyce / ‘I read Adrian Mole every year, it gets funnier each time’
13 August 2021
Anuk Arudpragasam / ‘There’s a lot of laughter in my life, but not when I read’
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