The Avid Reader Show

Episode 609: Steven Hall - Maxwell's Demon


Listen Later

Today our guest is Steven Hall, author of The Raw Sharks Texts a seminal and amazing book that was released almost 14 years ago and published in pretty much every language in the world. It won the Somerset Maugham Award and should be a movie soon. Steven has written for Granta and Lonely Planet and build tons of video games.

But today we will be talking about Maxwell’s Demon, Steven’s new book which is being released on April 6th in the US by Grove.

Thomas Quinn is having a hard time. A failed novelist, he's stuck writing short stories and audio scripts for other people's characters. His wife, Imogen, is working on a remote island halfway around the world, and talking to her over the webcam isn't the same. The bills are piling up, the dirty dishes are stacking in the sink, and the whole world seems to be hurtling towards entropic collapse. Then he gets a voicemail from his father, who has been dead for seven years.

Thomas's relationship with Stanley Quinn--a world-famous writer and erstwhile absent father--was always shaky, not least because Stanley always seemed to prefer his enigmatic assistant and prot g Andrew Black to his own son. Yet after Black published his first book, Cupid's Engine, which went on to sell over a million copies, he disappeared completely. Now strange things are happening to Thomas, and he can't help but wonder if Black is tugging at the seams of his world behind the scenes.

Absurdly brilliant, wildly entertaining, and utterly mind-bending, Maxwell's Demon triumphantly excavates the ways we construct meaning in a world where chaotic collapse looms closer every day.
...more
View all episodesView all episodes
Download on the App Store

The Avid Reader ShowBy Samuel Hankin

  • 3.6
  • 3.6
  • 3.6
  • 3.6
  • 3.6

3.6

43 ratings


More shows like The Avid Reader Show

View all
Stuff You Should Know by iHeartPodcasts

Stuff You Should Know

78,378 Listeners

Talk Bookish To Me by Talk Bookish To Me

Talk Bookish To Me

61 Listeners

The Shit No One Tells You About Writing by Bianca Marais, Carly Watters and CeCe Lyra

The Shit No One Tells You About Writing

774 Listeners

The Ezra Klein Show by New York Times Opinion

The Ezra Klein Show

15,852 Listeners

We Can Do Hard Things by Treat Media and Glennon Doyle

We Can Do Hard Things

41,538 Listeners

The Town with Matthew Belloni by The Ringer

The Town with Matthew Belloni

1,124 Listeners

Good Hang with Amy Poehler by The Ringer

Good Hang with Amy Poehler

10,814 Listeners

Welcome to the Party by Treat Media

Welcome to the Party

928 Listeners