‘So what’ fiction isn't creating passionate readers, says Pat Barker

Bestselling novelist criticised lack of new novels that speak strongly to particular audiences

Contemporary fiction is going through a “so what” moment, with very few novels generating a real sense of passion in readers, the Booker prize-winning novelist Pat Barker has said.

She said fiction, or the reading of fiction, was not in good health. It is less #MeToo, she told the Cheltenham literature festival on Sunday. “It is the so what moment.

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