BY MOST METRICS, the author Lev Grossman's life appeared >> to change irrevocably in 2009. After publishing two books in relative obscurity, he released The Magicians, a novel about troubled kids who get invited to a magic school and fall backward into financial center of the book world. By 2016, he was happily married with three children and had at last quit his magazine job to write full time. Grossman also announced he was feeling confident about his newest novel. It would revisit King Arthur's England.
Eight years later, that book, The Bright Sword, is finally here. "Books, they fight dirty," Grossman tells me at one of his old haunts, Greenlight Bookstore in Fort Greene, in late June. "You never know where the resistance is coming from." He's in the U.S. with his family on a promotion tour and victory lap (they live in Australia). They've rented out their house in Clinton Hill, but fortunately the tenants are away for the summer, handily leaving it furnished for them.
Grossman left the city, his home of 26 years, in September 2022. "I think I burned out a little on New York and Brooklyn," he says. He moved for a variety of reasons-raising children is difficult here, and his wife, an English professor who was at Princeton, is Australian (she's now teaching at the University of Sydney).
"It would probably be incorrect to say that I moved to Sydney because I was really stuck on my novel, but it was in there a little bit," he says. "A little bit like, I've tried everything else; now we will change hemispheres and see if it gets any better."" He's used to a certain degree of struggle when it comes to his writing. "Keep in mind that The Magicians was my first hit, and that came when I was 40," Grossman says. "I previously had two flops. If I had then two more flops? I've got three kids; they've got to eat. I had to sort of bet on myself. But it took a lot of sidestepping before I finally did."
This story is from the July 15-28, 2024 edition of New York magazine.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the July 15-28, 2024 edition of New York magazine.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
Trapped in Time
A woman relives the same day in a stunning Danish novel.
Polyphonic City
A SOFT, SHIMMERING beauty permeates the images of Mumbai that open Payal Kapadia's All We Imagine As Light. For all the nighttime bustle on display-the heave of people, the constant activity and chaos-Kapadia shoots with a flair for the illusory.
Lear at the Fountain of Youth
Kenneth Branagh's production is nipped, tucked, and facile.
A Belfast Lad Goes Home
After playing some iconic Americans, Anthony Boyle is a beloved IRA commander in a riveting new series about the Troubles.
The Pluck of the Irish
Artists from the Indiana-size island continue to dominate popular culture. Online, they've gained a rep as the \"good Europeans.\"
Houston's on Houston
The Corner Store is like an upscale chain for downtown scene-chasers.
A Brownstone That's Pink Inside
Artist Vivian Reiss's Murray Hill house of whimsy.
These Jeans Made Me Gay
The Citizens of Humanity Horseshoe pants complete my queer style.
Manic, STONED, Throttle, No Brakes
Less than six months after her Gagosian sölu show, the artist JAMIAN JULIANO-VILLAND lost her gallery and all her money and was preparing for an exhibition with two the biggest living American artists.
WHO EVER THOUGHT THAT BRIGHT PINK MEAT THAT LASTS FOR WEEKS WAS A GOOD IDEA?
Deli Meat Is Rotten
