Description

We’re used to the novel being
declared dead, dying, or endangered. Seemingly every few years, a critic will
read it the last rites – yet the form remains more popular than ever with
readers. In The Future of the Novel, author Simon Okotie presents a bold
future for long-form fiction, and suggests its evolution is far from over.

Okotie begins by responding to and
critiquing John Carruthers’ book Scheherezade, or The Future of the English
Novel, published in 1927 as part of the ‘To-day and To-morrow’ series – the
inspiration for our present-day FUTURES. He then cites others who have since meditated
on the direction of the form: Henry James, D. H. Lawrence, William Burroughs, Anais
Nin, Zadie Smith and China Mieville, among others. In doing so, he also tells
the story of the novel itself, from the realism of the 18th and 19th
centuries, through the early stirrings of modernism with its focus on the
‘inner life’, right through to the abstraction and experimentation of 21st
century postmodernism, and beyond.

All of which informs Okotie’s own future
vision for the novel – one that extends even further into the reaches of the
subconscious, and speculates on the uneasy role artifical intelligence will
play in the coming decades. The Future of The Novel is a rich and
immersive portrait of an artform which, despite constant claims to the contrary,
is more alive and exciting than ever.

Publisher Review

‘This book does something astonishing: it gives us the optimism to
write fearlessly into the future.’ Lara
Pawson, author of This is the Place to Be and Spent
Light
‘In this
provocative, incisive, intimate, and deeply learned book, Simon Okotie mounts a
beautiful defense of a brighter proposition.’ Adam Ehlich Sachs, author of The Organs of
Sense
‘If you have skin in the game as a writer or reader, you really
need to read this book. It taught me a lot.’ David Collard, author of Multiple Joyce: 100 Short
Essays About James Joyce’s Cultural Legacy