Works
Lanchester is the author of novels, a memoir, non-fiction and journalism.
His journalism has appeared in the London Review of Books [2] (where he is a Contributing Editor), Granta , The Observer , The New York Review of Books , The Guardian , the Daily Telegraph and The New Yorker . He also regularly writes on food and technology for Esquire .
The Debt to Pleasure (1996) won the 1996 Whitbread Book Award in the First Novel category and the 1997 Hawthornden Prize. It was described as a skilful and wickedly funny account of the life of a loquacious Englishman named Tarquin Winot, revealed through his thoughts on cuisine as he undertakes a mysterious journey around France. The revelations become more and more shocking as the truth about the narrator becomes apparent. He is a monster, and yet an appealing and erudite villain.
Mr Phillips (2000) describes one day in the life of Victor Phillips, a middle-aged accountant who has been made redundant, but has yet to tell his family. He spends the day travelling round London, with the narrative dividing itself between reporting Mr Phillips' observations about what he sees, and also exploring his recollections of things in the past, or his own taboo-like preoccupations, with sex and social obligation. The book deals with other male, middle-class concerns, including money, family and getting older.
Fragrant Harbour (2002) is set in Hong Kong in the 1980s. It tells the stories of three immigrants to the island—an ambitious and increasingly self-confident female English journalist who has recently arrived, an elderly English hotel-keeper who came in the 1930s; a young Chinese man who came as a child refugee from mainland China.
His memoir Family Romance (2007) recounts the story of his mother, a nun who walked out of the convent, changed her name, falsified her age, [3] and concealed these facts from her husband and son until her death.
2010 saw the publication of Lanchester's book Whoops! Why Everyone Owes Everyone and No One Can Pay (titled I.O.U.: Why Everyone Owes Everyone and No One Can Pay outside the UK). It is an explanation of the 2007–2008 financial crisis for general readers.
Capital (2012) is a satirical novel set in London prior to and during the 2007–2008 financial crisis and the Great Recession, telling of the crisis' effect on characters living in a fictional street in Clapham, a suburb of south London. The book deals with contemporary issues in British life including immigration, Islamic extremism, celebrity, and property prices. The book was adapted into a three-part TV series for BBC 1, first broadcast on 24 November 2015. [4]
In 2013 he was invited by The Guardian to examine materials from Edward Snowden, and on 4 October wrote "The Snowden files: why the British public should be worried about GCHQ". [5]
Lanchester wrote the introduction to a 2012 edition of Empire of the Sun by J. G. Ballard, an author he resonates with. [6]
The Wall (2019) is set in a dystopic near-future Britain, where rising sea-levels and climate change have led to a breakdown in world-wide social and economic order. The title refers to a concrete fortification constructed along the entire British coast, populated by conscripted Defenders responsible for preventing the Others (refugees) from reaching the British mainland (where the British population enjoy relative stability and prosperity). The story is told from the perspective of Kavanagh, a young man beginning his mandatory two-year tour of duty as a Defender on the Wall. The novel deals with themes of inter-generational guilt, international inequality, cross-Channel refugee migration, climate change, and slavery. The Wall was included on the Booker Prize longlist for 2019.
