Customer Reviews

Granta 81: Best of Young British Novelists, 2003

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If you look back to 1983, Granta selected the likes of Ian McEwan, Salman Rushdie, Martin Amis, and Kazuo Ishiguro as the outstanding young British writers. They next had the issue in 1993, where they were less successful in projecting the new award winners and critically praised novelists.

There are good stories throughout this volume, though I liked the Ben Rice and Sarah Waters stories the best. The really nice part of a short fiction collection like this one is that you're bound to find a new writer that you'll follow for the next 10 years. As weak as I thought the 1993 collection of writers, I still found Iain Banks, perhaps the best genre-busting writer of the recent past, and Jeanette Winterson.

If you enjoy finding a fresh voice or you just like reading a good story, I think you'll find this edition of Granta well worth your time. I don't always pick up this sort of magazine because they are often loaded with less than stellar short fiction by otherwise good writers, but this particular issue has many excellent short pieces that will lead you to find the upcoming novels from these artists.