Dwight Garner

And-

Dwight Garner, I review fiction and sometimes nonfiction.

And-

Alexandra Jacobs, I'm the same as Dwight, but not as good.

And we're back.

I'm MJ Franklin.

I'm chatting with our staff book critics Dwight Garner, Alexandra Jacobs, and Jen Szalai about their year in reading.

Before the break, we were chatting about the vibe of the year overall, and now I want to get to some specific book recommendations.

And I think it's a masterpiece.

And our critic, actually, at the New York Times, Dwight Garner, said, without reservation, this is the novel of the decade, if not the century.

Oh, my gosh.

This century, the 21st century.

Exactly.

We are going to explore exactly why the audiobook, and specifically not the print edition, is being heralded by critics as the definitive version of this work.

Which is a huge claim.

It is.

And Fiona Sturgis, writing in The Guardian in October 2026, she praised the narration, too, calling it leisurely, gravelly, dryly funny, and unmistakably Atwood.

Yeah, they all keyed in on the voice.

But here's where I really want to push back on the critics or at least, you know, play devil's advocate for the person listening to us right now.

Okay, let's hear it.

But I do think overall, like, we should have, like, a more [laughs] well-paid, stable, more deeply appreciated, and more widely read, like, critical class than we do right now.

And yeah, so I think, you know, Dwight Garner just recently had a review of Marlon James' new book in The New York Times, which was, like, it was just, like, astonishingly effusive.

He said, you know, "This is the book of the decade, if not the century," I think.

Yes.

Okay.

The New York Times, one of the book critics is a guy named Dwight Garner, who is a notoriously opinionated book reviewer.

And early in September... before the Labor Day weekend, he posted his review of The Disappears, which we knew had been assigned.

We at Riverhead knew had been assigned, but didn't know when it was going to be posted or when it was going to appear in the newspaper.

And essentially he called Dwight Garner, who is not the easiest reviewer to please, called this, this is the novel of the decade, maybe the century.

And, you know, and then it got more effusive.

You know, I am hundreds of thousands of years older than Marlon is, but I will never in my career be associated with a book again that got this kind of critical reception.

Eventually, when we transition to the audience question portion of this event, we ask that you raise your hand and then speak into the microphone when it is brought to you.

Tonight, in partnership with the George Washington University, we are excited to welcome Marlon James, celebrating the release of his new book, The Disappearers, a Booker Prize long-listed work that Dwight Garner of The New York Times has called, "The novel of the decade, if not the century." In 1988, eight men in Kingston, Jamaica, begin rehearsals for a play.

The men are strangers to one another, and each has a different reason for being involved, but they all share one inescapable truth.

All of them are gay, and all of them must contend with the dangers that such a truth lays bare.

But I do have to ask you-

Mm-hmm

... a question about that Dwight Garner review.

Oh, God.

Oh, absolutely.

Y- you have heavyweights like Dwight Garner at The New York Times claiming the novel simply, quote, "fails to launch."

Yikes.

Yeah.

It is deeply jarring, and the critical war is reflecting that exact whiplash.

The review provides a fantastic breakdown of this critical divide.

Dwight Garner at The New York Times was perhaps the most brutal.

Fails to Launch, is that-

In his new novel, The Disappearers, the Booker Prize-winning author Marlon James chronicles the events surrounding a vicious anti-gay attack in Jamaica in the late 1980s.

The New York Times book critic Dwight Garner declared the book a masterpiece, calling it the novel of the decade and possibly the century thus far.

Our critic at large, John Powers, says that The Disappearers shows James to be one of those writers you just have to read.

The fantasy of Jamaica is of an outpost of pleasure, with shimmering white beaches, James Bond seducing sexy women in mountain resorts, and Bob Marley singing his gorgeous songs of unity and love.

He's, you know, he's been getting, Quite a few rave reviews.

I mean, Dwight Garner in the New York Times, in uncharacteristic style, kind of went completely wild for it and said it was the book of the century so far, which I thought was quite interesting.

Damon Gallagher, another former Booker winner, I should say, reviewed it for us.

And he's...