Conversations with Friends

"I can see why – they both interrogate love, their characters are writers, they are young women who have a yearning and a sense of aloneness. They are keen observers of the world. I loved how she used the blueprint of the love triangle – two young gay women get emotionally, and sexually, embroiled with an older, more urbane couple in Dublin – in a way that made it seem fresh and unexpected. Nothing feels clichéd or familiar. She is so strong on dialogue and there is something both youthful and deeply mature in her writing. It’s really exhilarating to read a debut that’s so good. I want to read whatever Fiona Mozley produces next. She is already working on her second novel and I bet it’ll be worth reading. I’ve got some other 2018 reading already lined up though: I’m looking forward to Louise Erdrich’s new book, out in January, called Future Home of the Living God . Also a book that’s making waves in Europe, Lullaby by Leila Slimani. It won the Prix Goncourt and it’s about a middle-class French-Moroccan couple whose baby dies in the care of a nanny. It sounds a bit like Michael Haneke’s film Hidden on the same themes of middle-class lives, race and crime. Support Five Books Five Books interviews are expensive to produce. If you're enjoying this interview, please support us by donating a small amount ."