The Happy Reader
The Happy Reader - Issue 16, Moses Sumney
A collaboration between Penguin Classics and Fantastic Man, the concept of The Happy Reader is simple: the first half of the magazine is a long-form interview with a notable book fanatic and the second half explores one classic Book of the Season from an array of surprising and invigorating angles
On the cover this time, sonic trailblazer Moses Sumney is as intense and chimerical as his singing voice. Of course, he's a big reader as well. His favourite books, as this interview with the equally trailblazing Jia Tolentino reveals, are often about new ways to form an identity, to break out of tired old modes of living and become, once and for all, one's true unabridged self. He's photographed by Kennedi Carter in Asheville, North Carolina, where he lives.
Our Book of the Season is Sabahattin Ali's breathtaking romance, MADONNA IN A FUR COAT. Published to indifference in the early '40s it's become one of the biggest literary blockbusters in Turkey in recent years — and the question of how and why it went from underground legend to mass-market hit is intriguing, just like the layered narratives of the novel itself. Contributors include: Elif Shafak, Julie Verhoeven, Liz Johnson Artur, Rob Doyle, Richard Godwin, and Kaya Genç.
UK cover price: £4