James Salter
Book clinic: can you recommend middle-class American authors?
Yes, but go further… there are richly rewarding literary tales from Africa and South America too
Alex Preston
30, Nov, 2019 @6:00 PM
Top 10 parallel narratives
From Philip Roth to Zadie Smith, Lisa Halliday selects some of the best novels using formal adventures to bridge the ‘impassable gaps’ in our world
Lisa Halliday
07, Mar, 2018 @9:42 AM
Top 10 books about cheating
From illicit James Salter to category-defying Jeanette Winterson, here are the best contemporary works about romantic infidelity
Jamie Quatro
21, Feb, 2018 @10:00 AM
Top 10 books on postwar France
Novelist Alex Christofi chooses books, by authors from Françoise Sagan to James Salter, that conjure an era fraught with political struggle and possibility
Alex Christofi
30, Aug, 2017 @9:53 AM
A brief history of the short story: James Salter's unreliable genius
Some of his short stories have conspicuous faults – not least in their portrayal of women – but the best show a unique, sad beauty
Chris Power
14, Apr, 2017 @7:05 AM
Top 10 stories of hubris
From Michel Houellebecq to Simone de Beauvoir, novelist Tommy Wieringa chooses stories of men who have tried to reach beyond what is possible
Tommy Wieringa, translated by Sam Garrett
28, Sep, 2016 @11:12 AM
Sarah Hall: sex, death and the short story
Sex and death are the most fascinating aspects of life, fiction’s greatest challenge – and the short story is perfectly adapted to explore difficult subjects
Sarah Hall
19, Aug, 2016 @1:00 PM
My hero: James Salter by Rupert Thomson
Salter’s gift as a writer was his way of conveying the ecstasy and transience of life in language that was simple and crystalline
Rupert Thomson
27, Jun, 2015 @10:00 AM
James Salter obituary
Cult author who ‘wrote American sentences better than anyone’
Michael Carlson
22, Jun, 2015 @5:09 PM
Author James Salter dies aged 90
Salter, who most famous novel was A Sport and a Pastime, published in 1967, also wrote the script of the 1969 film Downhill Racer, starring Robert Redford
Tim Wyatt
20, Jun, 2015 @4:13 PM
Top 10 holidays in fiction – Emma Straub
From James Salter to Lorrie Moore and Patricia Highsmith, novelist Emma Straub is our guide for a tour of the best-imagined vacations
Emma Straub
23, Jul, 2014 @12:58 PM
The Observer's books of the year
Writers, Observer critics and others tell us their favourite reads of 2013 – and what they hope to find under the tree
The Observer
24, Nov, 2013 @12:05 AM
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