For her next trick, Egan has written a 400-page historical novel called Manhattan Beach. Most of them had been in Korea or Vietnam, but there was one second world war veteran there. But starting out – she was first published in 1995 – she was somehow never pegged as “a hot, young writer”. Actually, I’ve barely been on a ship.”Acting on a hunch, I ask if she was relieved to have finished Manhattan Beach before the election of Trump. • Manhattan Beach by Jennifer Egan will be published in the UK on 3 October (Little, Brown £16.99).

Source: The Guardian September 24, 2017 06:00 UTC