Please join me in welcoming James Lasdun to the BookBrowse Community Forum.
James was born in London and now lives in the US. He has published novels, a memoir, collections of poetry, books of short stories, and is the recipient of the 2026 Katherine Anne Porter Award, given by the American Academy of Arts and Letters. His New Yorker article on the Murdaugh case, The Corrupt World Behind the Murdaugh Murders, was the magazine’s most widely read article in 2023. With the director Jonathan Nossiter he co-wrote the films Sunday, which won Best Feature and Best Screenplay awards at Sundance, and Signs and Wonders, starring Charlotte Rampling and Stellan Skarsgaard. He is an Executive Producer on the HBO series DTF St Louis, which was inspired by his New Yorker article, My Dentist’s Murder Trial: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/07/03/my-dentists-murder-trial
His work has been widely translated and won many awards, including an O. Henry Award and the inaugural BBC National Short Story Award. He has been a finalist for the T.S. Eliot Prize, the Forward Prize, the LA Times Book Prize and the Writers Prize (formerly the Rathbones Folio Prize). His first novel, The Horned Man, was a New York Times Notable Book, and his second, Seven Lies, was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
James’ latest book, The Family Man: Blood and Betrayal in the House of Murdaugh, is an “immersive account of a seemingly loving father’s transformation into a ‘family annihilator.’” Published on May 5, 2026, the work was featured as a BookBrowse First Impressions selection earlier in the year, and received rave reviews from our members.
Please use this space to ask James questions about his work. As a reminder, to reply to an existing comment, click the grey Reply on the right side under the comment. To ask a new question, click the blue Reply button a little lower down.
James: Thank you so much for agreeing to chat with us. Is there anything you’d like to add to the bio above before we jump into the Q&A?