In a podcast looking at some of the most buzzy new year fiction, we talk to Chad Harbach, whose The Art of Fielding combines baseball and Melvillian scholarship into what many are hailing as the latest Great American Novel.

From the other side of the Atlantic comes Andrew Miller's Pure, a historical yarn set on the eve of the the French revolution which has just won the Costa novel of the year award.

Straddling the Atlantic, we also discuss the search for the Great American Novel and ask whatever happened to the great British one.

Reading list:
The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach (Fourth Estate)
Pure by Andrew Miller (Sceptre)

Claire Armitstead
Andrew Miller (novelist)
Andy Bull
Sarah Crown
Xan Brooks
Lindesay Irvine
Tim Maby







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