Creative Digest #15: Adventures in Audiobooks, and forthcoming publications
The latest edition of our departmental Substack
Welcome to the fifteenth edition of Creative Digest, the Substack from the Creative Writing team at City, University of London, where we teach on undergrad and postgrad degrees in the School of Communication and Creativity. We hope you enjoy it.
Adventures in Audiobooks
by Jonathan Gibbs
I know they work very well for other people, but I am not a natural audiobook listener. I don’t like how passive they make me in my engagement with the text. I like physical books for the the multiple dimensions they give to my reading: not just the weight of the thing in my hands, and the intuitive sense it gives of how much left of it is to come, but how the spread of pages in my field of vision opens out the reading experience ahead and behind. How does the paragraphing function on the page head? Is the next scene one of action or dialogue? What words can I pick up in my peripheral vision even as I concentrate on the line in front of me? In all of this I’m an active participant in the creation of the story. Too active, perhaps. If I’m coming to the very end of a story, or towards what feels like a key moment, I’ll cover the relevant bit of the page with my hand, to avoid spoilers.
In physical books, in other words, the reading process is only nominally linear. The line of the narrative exists in a thicket of its own making, continually interrupted by the after-echo of the words it leaves in its wake, and the whispered premonition of those that lie ahead. The ‘now’ of the narrative is always accompanied by its past and its future.
Audiobooks return the story to the eternal ‘now’ of its narrative line. In doing so they accentuate the drama, but they press the reader to their armchair and force them to engage with the story one word at a time and – more importantly – at the pace set by the reader. When I read in print, I’m constantly varying the pace of my reading: accelerating to a skim, slowing to a crawl, skipping ahead or doubling back. My attention is a flexible instrument. When listening to an audiobook, that flexibility is lost, or handed over to the audio-reader.
So my recent reading of the first volume of Solvej Balle’s seven-book novel On the Calculation of Volume, translated by Barbara J. Haveland, was unusual, in that I listened to it on audiobook. This wasn’t through choice – that was the edition in the university library – but I did find it an interesting experience. I listened to it over a week or so on my commute, and thoroughly enjoyed it as a book, and Elizabeth Liang’s reading of it, but what I enjoyed about it was perhaps specific to the book.
If you don’t know it, Balle’s novel is a literary-philosophical take on the time-slip narrative. In it, French rare books dealer Tara Selter finds herself ‘inhabiting’ November 18th. Each time she wakes up, she’s in the same day, just like Bill Murray in Groundhog Day. Unlike Murray, however, Tara can move around geographically – in the first volume she returns home from Paris, where she’d been on a book-buying trip, to her home with her husband in the fictional town of Clairon-sous-Bois. Eventually she gets frustrated by having to explain her predicament to him every morning (he’s remarkably accepting of this absurd, impossible situation!) and so she moves into the spare room, which she knows he doesn’t step into on his fixed route through his November 18th, and then out to a house standing empty, that she finds through an estate agent.
It's a wonderful – a wonderfully European – novel (you can read the opening of it here) that engages slowly and carefully with the parameters and implications of this glitch in the matrix of one woman’s existence. If there is a larger frame to the narrative – a metaphysical underpinning or a message or meaning – then that is to come. For the moment, I am happy to stroll along with Tara as she explores her new world.
And that’s what makes this such a good book to listen to. If what I don’t like about audio is having to adapt to someone else’s pace (like going for a walk with someone who walks either much slower or faster than you) then that’s the perfect analogue to what Tara herself is experiencing. She’s stuck in a timeline not of her choosing.
But, crucially, she is naturally a reflective and introspective person. When she realises she’s stuck, she doesn’t panic. She feels her way around her temporal prison with an intelligent curiosity. The prose is slow, calm, intuitive. The words repeat, just as Tara’s days repeat, and Elizabeth Liang’s reading of the words, as she says them again and again, brings us closer to Tara’s experience than a print reading might. The book’s lesson – that we must observe, have patience, and adapt ourselves philosophically to whatever rhythm life imposes on us – is a good lesson for me about how to think about audiobooks.
Now I’m on Volume 2, and I’m reading it in print. Already it’s clear that I must navigate the text differently. Where I feel I’m entering a repetitive eddy of the prose, where Balle is accentuating the looping aspect of Tara’s existence, I have to concentrate on fixing my attention to the words. My instinct is to slide, to skip, where the audiobook would have forced me to keep slow pace with Tara. I expect I will eventually fall in step with the prose, but it will take effort, and time. Each book we read, we read differently. And likewise, as I tell my students, every book must teach the reader how to read it.
Forthcoming publications
by Joe Thomas
We’re delighted to share details of forthcoming publications in the programme team. In alphabetical (by author) order:
The Last of Earth by Deepa Anappara
Publication date: 12 February 2026
In the mid-nineteenth century, the mountainous kingdom of Tibet is closed to outsiders. As European powers scramble for global dominance, this only increases the allure of this mysterious territory.
Two of those looking to undertake the treacherous journey across Tibet are Balram, an Indian schoolteacher, and Katherine, a fifty-year-old British explorer. He is hired as a guide to an ambitious British surveyor; she intends to be the first European woman to reach Lhasa, home to the legendary Potala Palace.
But both have more complex motivations for their expeditions, and as their secrets snap at their heels they encounter the same mysterious figure: a stranger who may hold the key to their survival.
Drawn from the real-life experiences of Indian and British explorers, and written in spellbinding prose, The Last of Earth is a richly historical novel about the nuances and prejudices of the past, and the enduring power of friendship.
Reviews:
'Deepa Anappara has walked beyond the edges of history to craft this astounding and necessary novel.' Tsering Yangzom Lama, author of We Measure the Earth with Our Bodies
'Riveting... Exquisitely written and carefully plotted, this book is a triumph.' Laila Lalami, author of The Dream Hotel
'A bold retelling of stories of imperial adventurers who crossed in disguise into mid-nineteenth century Tibet... An astonishingly gripping novel.' Tsering Wangmo Dhompa, author of Coming Home to Tibet: A Memoir of Love, Loss, and Belonging
'The Last of Earth rewards those who linger to appreciate its masterful evocation of time and place... This deeply considered and powerful novel showcases Anappara's immense storytelling prowess. A delightful book to savour!' Melissa Fu, author of Peach Blossom Spring
Pre-order links for the UK: Waterstones, Amazon
Pre-order link for the US: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/744050/the-last-of-earth-by-deepa-anappara/
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The Forest on the Edge of Time by Jasmin Kirkbride
Publication date: 3 February 2026
The Future of Another Timeline meets The Bone Clocks in this dazzling piece of time-travel climate fiction about family and duty and the worlds we try to save along the way.
Reviews:
"Magical, melancholic, and moving. A wonderful debut, infused with reflection and hope in the face of tragedy” — Antony Johnston, author of Atomic Blonde
"I ripped through The Forest on the Edge of Time. Incisive and thoughtful sci-fi packed with emotion, urgency, and hope for a better future. A stellar achievement.” — Nicholas Binge, author of Ascension and Extremity
Preorder UK: Amazon, Blackwells
Preorder US: https://torpublishinggroup.com/the-forest-on-the-edge-of-time/?isbn=9781250376831&format=hardback
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Rebecca Tamás has a book of creative nonfiction on seasonal ritual and wild time, coming Spring 2026.
A second collection of poetry, titled The Fisher King, engaging with folklore, climate grief and the mysticism of the land, to be published by Fitzcarraldo Editions in late 2026/early 2027.
Bookseller announcement here
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True Blue by Joe Thomas
Publication date: 29 January 2026
The final part of the United Kingdom Trilogy
New Year's Eve 1988. An illegal rave in Hackney. Acid House has arrived in the UK. But the Second Summer of Love is no golden era for Britain.
A decade of Thatcher is starting to bite and her planned "Community Charge" will only rub salt in the wounds. Privatisation has lined shareholders pockets, but at what cost? A nation stripped of its assets, going for broke.
DC Patrick Noble is assigned to a task force working out of Stoke Newington, gathering evidence of police corruption to use against his new colleagues. But this is a dangerous game. And his underlings - spycop Parker and reluctant civilian Suzie Scialfa - are getting restive. Turns out blackmail and intimidation can only get you so far. Meanwhile, council solicitor Jon Davies is once again lifting stones that shouldn't be lifted - this time plumbing the depths of the deal to privatise water.
As the country hurtles towards disorder, in the form of riots that even the Iron Lady can't withstand, Noble walks an inexorable path towards his own inescapable fate. Things can only get better. But first they have to hit rock bottom.
Reviews for the United Kingdom Trilogy:
Red Menace:
An Irish Times Best Book of 2024, Irish Times Best Crime Fiction of 2024, and Best New Fiction of the Month Mail on Sunday
‘A novel that expands our horizons of crime writing’ Dominic Nolan
‘A blistering exposé of the reality beneath the shiny surface of the 1980s…a very early candidate for the crime novel of the year’ Irish Times
‘The second chapter in Thomas’s epic trilogy of policing and corruption in 1980s East London. Juggling storylines like a box-set drama rather than a conventional thriller, Thomas builds up an absorbing portrait of a time when everything was in the balance’ Mail on Sunday
White Riot:
A Times/Sunday Times Book of the Year; Best Crime Fiction 2023, Irish Times; a Novel of the Year in The Week
‘Joe Thomas brilliantly recaptures an ugly episode in our recent past. Lest we forget’ Val McDermid
‘White Riot captures the raw energy of the times in spectacular fashion, evoking a visceral narrative of power and corruption’ Jake Arnott
‘A timely, powerful and gorgeously readable novel that represents everything that is good and important about the crime fiction genre’ Irish Times
‘Enthralling and multilayered’ Sunday Times
‘Gripping . . . Deeply moving . . . A love letter to London, seething with outrage’ The Times
‘A propulsive crime novel. This ambitious work on a big canvas is an admirable attempt at portraying a fraught and fracturing nation’ Guardian
‘Captures the searing energy and polarised nature of the capital in the late 1970s and early 1980s . . . a potent drama from the counterculture’ Independent
Pre-order links for the UK: Waterstones, Amazon
Thanks for reading! Do get in touch if you have any questions or comments. If you want to find out more about the programmes offering Creative Writing teaching at City, University of London, then do explore here:
You can find details of open days and evenings, and taster sessions, here
Contributing writers:
Jonathan Gibbs is the author of Randall, The Large Door and Spring Journal. He is Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at City, and is currently writing a book on the non-academic or ‘literary’ essay.
Joe Thomas is a Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing and is the author of White Riot, Red Menace, Brazilian Psycho, Bent and other novels.