Literary studies: general

Kafkaesque: Ten Great Writers Translate the Twentieth Century

‘A book to underline endlessly, to carry around until battered, and then to tell all your friends to buy because you’re too reluctant to give up your own copy. A wonder’ Polly Barton

‘Brings a welcome freshness of vision and a dashing style … provocative and illuminating’ The Spectator

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Jane Austen: Rise of a Genius

‘I relished every page … This is the best book on Jane Austen I have ever read’Spectator

‘Compelling … a delightful and engrossing book … Byrne’s passion is nothing if not persuasive’Sunday Times

Was Jane Austen a woman of prim manners and genteel calm? Or someone who behaved outrageously, filled with sharp wit and wild comedy?

The Real Jane Austen: A Life in Small Things

THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER

‘It is good to meet the real Jane Austen at last’ Independent on Sunday

‘Brilliantly illuminating … by focusing, chapter by chapter, on one thread or another of Austen’s experience, Byrne allows us to grasp the richness of her inner life’ Guardian

Hardy Women: Mother, Sisters, Wives, Muses

A Book of the Year in The Times, Guardian, Independent, New Statesman, Bookseller and at Waterstones

‘He understands only the women he invents – the others not at all’

The Adventures of Miss Barbara Pym

‘Captures both Barbara and her writing so miraculously’ JILLY COOPER

Picked as a Book to Look Forward to in 2021 by the Guardian, The Times and the Observer

A Radio 4 Book of the Week, April 2021

Three Rings: A Tale of Exile, Narrative and Fate

Winner of the 2020 Prix du Meilleur Livre Etranger, France’s best foreign book of the year.

‘Astounding’ Sebastian Barry

‘A masterpiece’ Ayad Akhtar

‘This little book is ruminative, humane, and gorgeously precise’Jonathan Lethem

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