Its place on this week’s Man Booker shortlist is testament that long books are fine by the judges. One book survey found that the average number of pages had increased from 320 to 400 pages between 1999 and 2014. One film critic says that studios fear shorter movies will not be deemed worthy of Oscars. Readers gallop through Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan quartet (regarded by its author as a single novel) while short books don’t always keep their readers; A Brief History of Time, despite living up to its titular promise, was bought much more than read. The long and short of it is that authors must earn their length.

Source: The Guardian September 21, 2018 16:30 UTC