Home » Author Interviews » Adam Thirlwell: ‘You shouldn’t write luridly or cutely – but I liked the idea that maybe you could’

Adam Thirlwell: ‘You shouldn’t write luridly or cutely – but I liked the idea that maybe you could’

Written By Unknown on Sunday, January 25, 2015 | 5:19 AM

The novelist on the power of getting the tone wrong and finding truth in mess

Adam Thirlwell was named one of Granta’s best young British novelists in 2003, before he had even written a book. Born in 1978, he grew up in north London and read English at Oxford. His first novel, Politics (2003), was followed by The Escape (2009) and an avant-garde novella, Kapow! (2012), which was nominated for a Design Museum award in 2013. His third novel, Lurid & Cute, is out this week (Jonathan Cape, £16.99).

Lurid & Cute starts with an unnamed narrator waking up in a hotel room with a woman who’s not his wife and might even be dead. And things go downhill from there! What were you trying to do with this one?