This is the London Review of Books podcast.

Today we have the second of three guest episodes from Myself with Others,

a new podcast presented by our US editor, Adam Schatz.

In this episode, he's talking to this episode is the writer James Lazden.

Born in 1958 in London, James has lived in the United States since the mid-1980s.

He is the author of four widely praised novels and four collections of short stories,

as well as several books of poetry and a now classic memoir of being harassed by

an online stalker. The Guardian has described him as one of the most incisive investigators

of the human heart writing in English today. It's a judgment I share. In fact, I would go further

because his investigations of the human

heart are also explorations of the human condition in the age of social media, precariousness,

and fear. Thank you, James, for joining me on myself with others.

Well, thank you, Adam.

A little strange for us to be talking via Zoom in a more or less formal interview since we

see each other often and speak frequently.

Very strange.

We'll get used to it, though.

You've worked in a variety of literary forms in poetry, memoir, the short story, the novel,

even the thriller. You've also written screenplays.

But whatever form you're working in, I think of your writing as exploring how we navigate and

rationalize discrepancies between who we are and who we think we are, how we grapple with desires, dark impulses,

unpleasant feelings we'd rather not own up to, and increasingly how we respond to threats against privacy,

...