V S Naipaul

I asked these major fiction writers who they thought was the most important contemporary fiction writer, and what had been his/her influence on their ...

If you really want to write a novel, you should bite the bullet and put in the time and energy to write something that you're going to want to read and hope others will too.

V. S. Naipaul, in the winter of his long writing life, doesn't disguise his melancholy or his frailty. Still, his inquisitorial eye and his magic with a prose sentence have not abandoned him, nor the organ tones of his mesmerizing voice.

From important new fiction by Jonathan Franzen and Yiyun Li to penetrating critiques of the current political situation by Matt Taibbi and Chris Hedges, there is a lot to look forward to from publishers at all levels for the rest of the summer and the fall.