Love can change your life. But can it survive it?

Often described as ‘the English Philip Roth’ – though he prefers the description ‘the Jewish Jane Austen’ – Howard Jacobson’s gifts as a novelist include not only the penetrating psychological insight one would expect of a household literary name, but a talent of comedy almost entirely absent among the high table of British culture. Like all masters of the comic, his intentions are serious and profound; and in his new novel What Will Survive of Us he takes us to the edge of desire, love, and betrayal across a lifetime.

Lily Redfern falls in love with Sam Quaid the minute she sets eyes on him. It takes Sam a day or two longer. Curious, because Lily – independent, headstrong, rational – has never quite believed in love; while Sam – confident, passionate, romantic – thought he understood it inside out.

Lily is an award-winning television documentary maker. Sam is an award-winning playwright. Both are in relationships that have quietly expired, but their encounter makes them come alive again. As they begin to work together on the page and on screen, an affair takes hold that they are powerless to resist. Arriving in mid-life, their relationship opens unexpected new worlds and, for Lily, offers her a surprising form of liberation. But what will happen to them when familiarity, illness and age begin to take their toll? What will survive?

Speakers:

Howard Jacobson has written sixteen novels and five works of non-fiction. He won the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Award in 2000 for The Mighty Walzer and then again in 2013 for Zoo Time. In 2010 he won the Booker Prize for The Finkler Question; he was also shortlisted for the prize in 2014 for J.

Hannah MacInnes is a broadcaster and journalist. She presents frequently on Times Radio and is host of How To Academy’s live programmes and podcast. She interviews on-stage at a number of major literary events and has written for the Radio Times, the Evening Standard and TLS.