This essay and interview appear in this week’s The Book Pages newsletter. For more information and book coverage, sign up for the free newsletter. Years ago, I taught English as a Second Language at a ...

Thirty years ago, living in Cambridge, England, I wandered into Heffers Bookshop and picked up a monstrous new novel on the display table. It had a title out of Hamlet, a Simpsons-sky dustjacket, ...