This week, Thea Lenarduzzi and Lucy Dallas are joined by the critic Nelly Kaprièlian and the TLS’s French editor Russell Williams to discuss ‘Anéantir’, the latest novel by France’s best-known and maybe most controversial writer, Michel Houellebecq; the TLS’s Toby Lichtig talks us through a new memoir by the ‘pre-eminent author of British Jewish novels’, Howard Jacobson, and we consider a masterclass in sympathy from Anne Tyler, a tale of revenge by Japan’s ‘Queen of mysteries’, and a wartime reckoning in Finland.

‘Anéantir’ by Michel Houellebecq

‘Mother’s Boy: A writer’s beginnings’ by Howard Jacobson

‘French Braid’ by Anne Tyler

‘Lady Joker: Volume one’ by Kaoru Takamura, translated by Marie Iida and Allison Markin Powell  

‘Land of Snow & Ashes’ by Petra Rautiainen, translated by David Hackston

Produced by Sophia Franklin

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