Rupert Thomson fans agree on his talent, but that’s about it. We’ll argue for hours about which of his books are best.
For me it’s a toss-up between The Book of Revelation and Divided Kingdom. Emma Garman likes The Insult, Soft!, and The Book of Revelation. James Hynes is partial to Soft! and Divided Kingdom (though his piece in the Boston Review appeared well before Thomson’s latest book did). Time Out New York‘s Scott Indrisek admires the new novel, Death of a Murderer, but not, from the sound of it, much else.
In anticipation of my interview with Thomson (this Friday, 7 p.m., at McNally Robinson), I’ve cajoled the publisher into giving away Death of a Murderer and Thomson’s complete backlist: Dreams of Leaving (1987); The Five Gates of Hell (1991), Air & Fire (1993), The Insult (1996), Soft! (1998), The Book of Revelation (1999), and Divided Kingdom (2005).
The 40th person to email me at maud [at] maudnewton [dot] com gets the full set. Please write “Thomson giveaway” in the subject line and include your mailing address. Bill of Greenwich, NY has won the set.