Chris Power
@chrispower.bsky.social
I read books, write books (Mothers, A Lonely Man) and write about books (LRB, Guardian, NY Times etc). Booker judge 2025.
I’ve always been suspicious of the neatness of some essayists’ lives, almost as if… they’re making it up. Emily LaBarge’s Dog Days refuses to plane off the rough edges of her experiences, even if that makes them ungainly and difficult to present in a book. observer.co.uk/culture/book...
November 9, 2025 at 12:28 PM
I’ve always been suspicious of the neatness of some essayists’ lives, almost as if… they’re making it up. Emily LaBarge’s Dog Days refuses to plane off the rough edges of her experiences, even if that makes them ungainly and difficult to present in a book. observer.co.uk/culture/book...
Every Sunday I’ll be contributing a paperback column to the Observer’s New Review. Kicking things off is Driver by Mattia Filice (@nyrb-imprints.bsky.social), who’s poured his experience of 2 decades working on the French rail network into an extraordinary verse novel. observer.co.uk/culture/book...
November 2, 2025 at 1:51 PM
Every Sunday I’ll be contributing a paperback column to the Observer’s New Review. Kicking things off is Driver by Mattia Filice (@nyrb-imprints.bsky.social), who’s poured his experience of 2 decades working on the French rail network into an extraordinary verse novel. observer.co.uk/culture/book...
‘but it’s not what you’re supposed to do with a corpse’. Fantastic Stellan Skarsgård: www.vulture.com/article/stel...
October 24, 2025 at 10:04 AM
‘but it’s not what you’re supposed to do with a corpse’. Fantastic Stellan Skarsgård: www.vulture.com/article/stel...
Loved my conversation with Georgi Gospodinov and translator Angela Rodel @londonreviewbookshop.co.uk last night. Death and the Gardener is a beautiful novel
October 16, 2025 at 1:14 PM
Loved my conversation with Georgi Gospodinov and translator Angela Rodel @londonreviewbookshop.co.uk last night. Death and the Gardener is a beautiful novel
Letter signed, ‘Please accept. Sincerely, Samuel Beckett.’
October 16, 2025 at 8:24 AM
Letter signed, ‘Please accept. Sincerely, Samuel Beckett.’
Unsurprisingly, Keir Starmer doesn’t know the word ‘spine’
October 1, 2025 at 10:52 AM
Unsurprisingly, Keir Starmer doesn’t know the word ‘spine’
A morning in Deptford with Karl Ove Knausgaard, an evening in Bristol with Mariana Enríquez
October 1, 2025 at 10:43 AM
A morning in Deptford with Karl Ove Knausgaard, an evening in Bristol with Mariana Enríquez
Never been in a book club before; could never imagine being part of a better one than this. It’s been an amazing journey with these incredible people.
This was us last night just before going on stage the RFH to announce this year’s @thebookerprizes.com shortlist. Congratulations to the authors:
This was us last night just before going on stage the RFH to announce this year’s @thebookerprizes.com shortlist. Congratulations to the authors:
September 24, 2025 at 12:27 PM
Never been in a book club before; could never imagine being part of a better one than this. It’s been an amazing journey with these incredible people.
This was us last night just before going on stage the RFH to announce this year’s @thebookerprizes.com shortlist. Congratulations to the authors:
This was us last night just before going on stage the RFH to announce this year’s @thebookerprizes.com shortlist. Congratulations to the authors:
‘M and I both secretly felt that it was the ways in which we had been damaged that had given us our power.’
Loved this. But Parade haters should move along. www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...
Loved this. But Parade haters should move along. www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...
August 26, 2025 at 10:04 AM
‘M and I both secretly felt that it was the ways in which we had been damaged that had given us our power.’
Loved this. But Parade haters should move along. www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...
Loved this. But Parade haters should move along. www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...
Happy 80th birthday to the great man/writer/climber/lunch companion @mjohnharrison.bsky.social. It’s an honour to know you.
July 26, 2025 at 8:16 AM
Happy 80th birthday to the great man/writer/climber/lunch companion @mjohnharrison.bsky.social. It’s an honour to know you.
Henri Troyat on the death of Chekhov, 15 July 1904
(When James Salter read ‘Errand’ he couldn’t believe how much of the death scene Carver had lifted from Troyat)
(When James Salter read ‘Errand’ he couldn’t believe how much of the death scene Carver had lifted from Troyat)
July 15, 2025 at 2:17 PM
Henri Troyat on the death of Chekhov, 15 July 1904
(When James Salter read ‘Errand’ he couldn’t believe how much of the death scene Carver had lifted from Troyat)
(When James Salter read ‘Errand’ he couldn’t believe how much of the death scene Carver had lifted from Troyat)
Is it possible to have too many copies of The Book of Disquiet? The Richard Zenith translation (left and right) has just been reissued in a revised version. The text has also been reset, removing any and all unintended disquiet. An incredible book; one of the true greats.
July 10, 2025 at 9:54 AM
Is it possible to have too many copies of The Book of Disquiet? The Richard Zenith translation (left and right) has just been reissued in a revised version. The text has also been reset, removing any and all unintended disquiet. An incredible book; one of the true greats.
Raynor Winn has really fucked off my mum observer.co.uk/news/nationa...
July 6, 2025 at 5:42 PM
Raynor Winn has really fucked off my mum observer.co.uk/news/nationa...
A very enjoyable surprise to find Robert and Karijn in the @thetimes.com’s rundown of great literary marriages
June 21, 2025 at 8:20 AM
A very enjoyable surprise to find Robert and Karijn in the @thetimes.com’s rundown of great literary marriages
Light the Vaim flame. New Fosse (extracted in the New Yorker last week, see earlier post), out in October from @fitzcarraldoeds.bsky.social
June 7, 2025 at 12:33 PM
Light the Vaim flame. New Fosse (extracted in the New Yorker last week, see earlier post), out in October from @fitzcarraldoeds.bsky.social
Cat Power at the Barbican singing the Bob Dylan 1966 Royal Albert Hall concert that wasn’t ever at the RAH, but which she sang at the RAH in 2022, and will tonight sing at Bridgewater Hall in Manchester, 5 mins from the Free Trade Hall, where the original RHA concert actually took place
June 2, 2025 at 1:02 PM
Cat Power at the Barbican singing the Bob Dylan 1966 Royal Albert Hall concert that wasn’t ever at the RAH, but which she sang at the RAH in 2022, and will tonight sing at Bridgewater Hall in Manchester, 5 mins from the Free Trade Hall, where the original RHA concert actually took place
An extract from Jon Fosse’s forthcoming novel, Vaim, translated by Damion Searls Elias www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...
June 1, 2025 at 1:04 PM
An extract from Jon Fosse’s forthcoming novel, Vaim, translated by Damion Searls Elias www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...
Day one at Hay: Welsh is a piece of piss; I’ll be fluent by Wednesday.
May 26, 2025 at 9:58 PM
Day one at Hay: Welsh is a piece of piss; I’ll be fluent by Wednesday.
November’s come early
May 3, 2025 at 2:44 PM
November’s come early
I wrote about the first two volumes of Solvej Balle’s extraordinary time loop septology for @newstatesman.com www.newstatesman.com/culture/book...
May 1, 2025 at 11:29 AM
I wrote about the first two volumes of Solvej Balle’s extraordinary time loop septology for @newstatesman.com www.newstatesman.com/culture/book...
With the arrival of the next boxes of Booker books I’ve sadly had
to put my children into storage
to put my children into storage
April 28, 2025 at 7:16 PM
With the arrival of the next boxes of Booker books I’ve sadly had
to put my children into storage
to put my children into storage