Reality and Other Stories

A Kirkus Reviews Best Short Fiction of 2021 SelectionGhost stories for the digital age by the Booker Prize–longlisted author of The Wall.In 2017, inspired in part by Henry James’ The Turn of the Screw, the acclaimed English novelist John Lanchester published a ghost story in The New Yorker. "Signal," an eerie story of contemporary life and the perils of technology, was a sensation among readers—and since then Lanchester has written several more.Reality and Other Stories gathers the best of these, taking readers to an uncanny world familiar to fans of The Twilight Zone or Black Mirror. Household gizmos with a mind of their own. Mysterious cell-phone calls from unknown numbers. Reality TV shows and the creeping suspicion that none of this is real…Reality and Other Stories is a book of disquiet that captures the severe disconnection and distraction of our time.

From the Back Cover

Praise for John Lanchester:"A writer as funny as he is humane."– Keith Gessen"Book by book, John Lanchester proves himself one of our necessary writers, equal in wit, good nature, and fundamental sanity to whatever insane thing the new century throws at us."– Garth Risk Hallberg"John Lanchester writes with such clarity and effectiveness that his prose is a pleasure I always look forward to."– Philip Pullman"All of John Lanchester’s work is of a piece―he wants his readers to see our moment better, and then do something about it."– Kim Stanley Robinson

About the Author

Emilia Fox has won three AudioFile Earphones Awards for her narrations. She is an acclaimed and award-winning actress, most notably played the title role in the play Katherine Howard at the Chichester Festival Theatre, and Clara Copperfield in a television movie production of David Copperfield. In 2004 she began playing pathologist Nikki Alexander on the television series Silent Witness. In 2006 she garnered much praise for her role in the independent comedy-drama Cashback.John Lanchester is the bestselling author of The Debt to Pleasure, Capital, and other works of fiction and nonfiction. His books, which have been translated into twenty-five languages, have won the Whitbread First Novel Prize, the Hawthornden Prize, and the E. M. Forster Award of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He is a contributing editor to the London Review of Books and a regular contributor to the New Yorker. He lives in London.Richard Armitage has won numerous AudioFile Earphones Awards and well as the prestigious Audie Award for Best Narration of the year in 2018 and 2021. He trained at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. As an actor, he has had movie roles in The Hobbit and is also known for his appearances in the television series Spooks, The Vicar of Dibley, Robin Hood, and North and South. His theater credits include The Duchess of Malfi and Macbeth for the Royal Shakespeare Company. He has also featured on BBC Radio 4's The Ted Hughes Letters.

Reviews

News