Of Good Eggs and Bad Bookers

There’s an altogether fascinating piece in Sunday’s London Observer about author Robert Harris, whose fifth thriller, Imperium, is brand new in Britain (and due out in the States come September 19). In it, writer Lynn Barber recounts the ways that this 49-year-old novelist has affected a more luxurious lifestyle since he hit it big with Fatherland (1992); Harris’ disillusionment and eventual reconciliation with Tony Blair; his longstanding fascination with politics, which he once covered as a journalist and which clearly informs Imperium, a courtroom drama set in ancient Rome (“Politics is not dull,” Harris insists. “Politics is the essence of life, the most incredible theatre of characters, drama, incident, unexpected events, human frailties, astonishing courage.”); and his hatred of “the sort of ‘literary’ novels that win the Booker Prize.” Harris is also negative on the matter of crime fiction, which I’ll put down to either denial or confusion, since the novels he writes so easily fall into that category.

To enjoy the whole Observer profile, click here.