We’re back, and perturbed about the State of Things™️ (but only in an ironic, cold, distant way). This week, we get into the thick of the new Sally Rooney novel, ‘Beautiful World, Where are You?’ and use Shumon Basar’s ideas of autophobia, emotional capitalism and the compression of time to understand our place (and the place of our future novels) in the world. Email us at [email protected] to let us know who you think the writer of our time is, and when last you felt Seen in a work of art.

Murray's newsletter & Zahra's newsletter