Karen Joy Fowler's We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves is one of 2014's most memorable and lauded novels. Having received rave reviews across the world, it won the Pen/Faulkner in the United States and then became one of the first works by an American to be shortlisted for the Man Booker.
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Our narrator is Rosemary Cooke, an introverted college student drifting through life.
Slowly, she reveals that her isolation springs from her unconventional upbringing. Her
father is an animal behaviourist, her mother is traumatised, her brother has
gone Awol and her sister, Fern, has vanished entirely. The implication that Fern’s disappearance lies at the heart of her dysfunction is explained in a beautifully judged twist, not so much in the tail as the head.
I talked to Karen on the day We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves was published in the United Kingdom. She was in suitably celebratory mood, sipping prosecco as we discussed (in part one):
These Our Monsters LIVE: Sarah Moss reads from ’Breakynecky’
Graeme Macrae Burnet reads from ’The Dark Thread’ (These Our Monsters)
Fiona Mozley reads from ’The Loathly Lady’ (These Our Monsters)
Edward Carey reads from ’These Our Monsters’
Simon Barnes Reading: on closely-observed gannets
A Conversation with Simon Barnes - Part 2
A Conversation with Simon Barnes - Part 1
Simon Barnes reads from The Meaning of Birds
Episode 142 - Amanda Coe: Part 1
Episode 141 - Leila Slimani - Lullaby: Part 4
Episode 140 - Leila Slimani - Lullaby: Part 3
Episode 139 - Leila Slimani - Lullaby: Part 2
Episode 138 - Leila Slimani - Lullaby: Part 1
Episode 137 - Lynn Shepherd: Part 4
Episode 136 - Lynn Shepherd's Advice to Budding Writers
Episode 135 - Lynn Shepherd: Part 3
Episode 134 - Lynn Shepherd: Part 2
Episode 133 - Lynn Shepherd: Part 1
Episode 132 - Neel Mukherjee: Part 3
Episode 131 - Neel Mukherjee: Part 2
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