The Guardian

So Beautiful World is basically raising a canonical question—“How can we read or write novels (or care about love affairs) in the face of human misery”—and addressing it in the traditional way: by representing interiority and love affairs compellingly enough to keep you turning the pages—ideally, persuading you that, when people are fighting for th... See more

We ignore our history and the resurgence of narratives and systems tried and tested. Every modern generation believes that they are the ones fighting for true freedom, that this time — and this time only — is make or break.

Different as it sounds, this kind of triumphalism had something in common with paralysed heartbreak. One rested in arrogant assurance, while the other rested in despair. Both saw the future as something offstage, rather than as the thing we were always creating in every moment, whether we acknowledged it or not. And both forgot that essential truth

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